


You Call This Archaeology?

by MrProphet



Series: King Solomon's Naquadah Mines [3]
Category: She - H. Rider Haggard, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 11:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 36,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10718445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	You Call This Archaeology?

"So, here we are again," Jack said to Daniel. "You, me, the evil genius and the mob of goons."

"We have to stop going to these kinds of party," Daniel agreed. He was dimly aware of another group of guards entering the throne room through the door behind them, as the major domo repeated the order for Daniel and Jack to kneel. Of course, they did not comply. They both knew that they would be forced down eventually, but it was more or less a matter of principle to not go willingly.

At a gesture from Ayesha, Teal'c and Nefera rose. The Jaffa grabbed Jack's shoulders and forced him to kneel, while Nefera did the same to Daniel. Both wore an expression of fierce and desperate concentration, but despite this obvious effort, neither seemed able to shrug off the Queen's mental control, any more than either Jack or Daniel had the physical strength to keep their feet. Jack might have fought one or more of the guards, but not Teal'c; not when the Jaffa was plainly not in control of his actions. They were pushed to their knees, and although spared the indignity of being forced to prostrate themselves, they were bound, guards coming forward to tie their hands behind their backs.

"You are strong," Ayesha commended them, in Arabic.

"We work out," Jack replied. "Thanks for noticing." Daniel was a little surprised that the Colonel spoke Arabic, but he supposed it made sense if he had been involved in operations in the Middle East.

The Goa'uld Queen smiled a cold, cruel smile, and turned to Teal'c. "Jaffa," she ordered. "Take the two women away. You," she gestured to three of her guards. "Accompany them. Show them to our most comfortable prison. Keep them under guard, but see to their needs; they may be of use to us later."

Sam rose, as unwillingly as Teal'c and Nefera, and the three of them marched out.

"How is she doing that?" Jack asked in a low whisper.

"Some property of the Tomb, I guess," Daniel replied. "Something similar to the calling effect which drew Sam and Teal'c here, that allows her to manipulate Goa'uld hosts and Jaffa through their symbiotes, or through the naquadah in their systems."

"A little of both," Ayesha said.

"You speak English?" Again, Daniel was surprised, although he was not sure quite why.

"We speak all tongues," she replied. "But you are correct in your deduction, as far as it goes."

Ayesha rose from her throne, and with a predatory grace she descended from the dais and moved in a slow circle around the two men, looking them up and down. Her ever-burning eyes seemed to bore into them, making Daniel's skin crawl. She trailed a hand along his shoulders and he shivered.

"Very good," Ayesha acknowledged with a hungry smile. She moved past Daniel and ran her fingers through Jack's hair. He tossed his head to dislodge her. "Strong, brave, spirited. You are fine champions."

"Champions, huh," Jack retorted. "What do we win?"

"Nothing yet," Ayesha replied. "Tell us, which of you belongs to which."

"Which to which what?" Daniel asked.

"Who's on first?" Jack added. Ayesha cuffed him playfully around the head, knocking him sprawling on his face. "Ow," Jack said.  He lay there for a moment, before managing to lever himself onto his side.

"Which of you belongs to which of the Goa'uld," Ayesha said, crouching in front of Daniel. She caught him at the back of his neck, and forced his gaze to meet hers. She exhaled softly, and a pungent scent filled the air around them. "Which of them brought you here?"

"Nefera, I guess," Daniel replied.

"The dark one?"

"Um, yeah."

Ayesha stood. "So he belongs to the fair-haired one," she surmised. "What is she called?"

When neither answered, Ayesha drove her sandaled foot into Jack's midriff with enough force to lift him up, and send him tumbling fifteen foot to fetch up hard against a column. She followed, and lifted him by the throat, her honey-sweet breath wrapping itself around him. "What is her name?"

"Major Sam Carter," he answered, hoarsely.

Ayesha nodded, and tossed Jack casually to the ground beside Daniel.

"Doesn't she know she's supposed to beat-up on you?" Jack asked Daniel

Daniel shrugged. "Guess she didn't get the memo. Is it just my imagination?" Daniel replied. "Or is she…"

"Very strong? Not your imagination," Jack assured him.

"Take them away," Ayesha ordered. "Prepare them for our pleasure."

"Oh boy, do I not like the sound of that," Jack muttered.

*

"Damnit Teal'c! If you close that door, so help me I'll…"

 _Boom!_ The door slammed shut with leaden finality, and a great, iron lock closed with a heavy clunk. Immediately, Sam found herself able to move freely, and flung herself at the door, battering madly at the stone.

"Curse you, shol'va!" Sam screamed. "I will see you die slowly and painfully a hundred times for this treachery. I will be free one day, and I will rend you limb-from-limb with my bear hands!"

"You know, that's harder to do than you might think," Nefera cautioned her.

"You!" Sam snarled, spinning to face her. She looked at the slender form, and saw a crackling potential housed within it; a power great enough to challenge her own. A power which must therefore be snuffed out.

"Calm down, Major Carter," Nefera cautioned. "I don't want to hurt you."

" _You_ brought us here," Sam accused. "You knew this would happen. You have sold us all to the Goa'uld."

"No…" Nefera began, but Sam lunged for her, and she was forced to defend herself.

She sidestepped the first rush, then dodged a pair of quick blows before returning a solid cross to the Major's jaw. The punch would have staggered a professional boxer, but Sam barely flinched, and continued to pursue Nefera around their cell until at last she clipped the Ashrak with a hurled statuette. Nefera stumbled, and Sam was on her, grappling for her neck, trying to force the other woman's head down towards her chest.

"I…" Nefera choked. "I am the hand that wields thy sword." Sam hesitated, confused, and Nefera pressed on. "I am the blade in thine enemy's heart. I am the hunter who stalks thy prey. I am the shadow at thy command. Thine is the will that guides me; thine is the passion that drives me. Thou art my mistress, and I am thine Ashrak."

Sam released Nefera, and took a few staggering steps backwards, as the woman coughed and gasped for air. "What was that?" Sam demanded. "What just happened?"

"It is as I feared," Nefera said. "Somehow, Jolinar's Goa'uld instincts are being brought to the surface for you to act out."

Sam shook her head, confused. The past twenty-four hours seemed like such a blur. "This isn't possible," she said.

"Oh no? Tell me, Major? Do you speak Goa'uld?"

"No, I… _Mai'tac_!" She swore, realising that she had been speaking nothing else for some time. "But how can this be happening? I only have _fragments_ of Jolinar's memories, and Jolinar wasn't Goa'uld."

"Well, Jolinar may have been Tok'ra," Nefera said. "But don't think that makes her a cute, fluffy bunny. She had the instincts of a Goa'uld, though she buried them deep. She sent thousands of men to their deaths against the armies of the Goa'uld, and when she had to be, she was as cold-blooded a killer as any I've known."

"You sound like you admire her."

"I do; or did. I've had few enemies I've respected as much. Why else would I bother to use her, instead of just eliminating her? We had a lot in common, she and I; we were even of a similar age, by Goa'uld standards."

Sam's eyes widened as a memory came back to her, unbidden. "You were…"

"Once. A _very_ long time ago," Nefera admitted. "Of course she was a lot more butch at the time. Stephan, her host was called, I think."

"I thought that Jolinar only took female hosts?" Sam asked, confused.

"For preference," Nefera agreed. "But beggars can't be choosers, and in the matter of hosts, the Tok'ra are most definitely beggars. Moreover, Stephan was the former host of Perun, a minor Goa'uld. Jolinar captured him, extracted and killed the symbiote and took his place. You don't remember this?"

Sam shook her head. "As I said; the memories I inherited from Jolinar are pretty fragmented. I remember…bits," she admitted, a little embarrassed.

Nefera laughed. "It was kind of funny really. I was passing as a Jaffa at the time, and Perun was noted for his appetite for the ladies, so when I was presented to him, naturally everyone expected…But I digress," she said, noting Sam's discomfort with the subject.

"Yes," Sam agreed. "So what…Was I trying to bite you?" She asked.

"In the back of the neck," Nefera confirmed. "You were trying to bite through the skin to kill the symbiote wrapped around my host's spinal column. It's a pretty horrid way to die, but it's effective, and allows the killer to drink the blood of the dead."

"So why did I stop?" Sam asked, trying not to dwell on the thought.

"I swore to serve you as your Ashrak. All those genetic memories and instincts knew that removed me as a threat to you."

"And how come you don't see me as a threat?"

"Because I'm Ashrak."

Sam frowned. "What does that mean, exactly?"

Nefera settled herself on a couch. "That's a long story," she said.

Sam looked about, noticing for the first time how opulent their surroundings were. "I'm not going anywhere," she said. "Although…do you get the feeling this isn't really a cell?" She asked.

"Five-star accommodation," Nefera agreed. "But I suspect that the room service isn't up to much."

Sam smiled as she sat on one of the two beds and made herself comfortable. "So tell me about being an Ashrak," she prompted.

"Well, it starts with being a freak," Nefera said. "No genetic memory means no inborn ambition to threaten your master, no ancient grudges to distract you from service; and no idea what you're getting into. Other prim'ta can sense these aberrations, and will try to kill the afflicted larvae, so you have to rescue them quickly. Most die, but those who do not are sterilised and separated from the others for Ashrak training. A suitable host is selected, and the prim'ta is implanted into their belly. Usually the one chosen is not Jaffa before selection, but an ordinary human of about twenty-five years.

"The Jaffa is trained and conditioned, ceaselessly, and when she enters kelno'reem she is instructed to meditate on the day's teachings, filtering that knowledge to the empty, receptive mind of the Goa'uld maturing inside her. When the time comes, the Goa'uld rises inside her, and takes control of her body. The pouch in which it grew all but heals over," she added, drawing up her shirt to reveal an x-shaped scar on her belly.

"That's still your original host?" Sam asked.

"Oh yes. I like this body; I don't ever plan to give it up. I've taken good care of it, and been permitted enough use of the sarcophagus to keep it young until now."

"So why didn't that give you ambition?" Sam demanded.

"The sarcophagus does not increase ambition; merely removes conscience and restraint. I still existed to serve, but the sarcophagus took away all distraction and questioning."

"Made you a better killer."

Nefera nodded. "Yes. I haven't used one in years now, mind you."

"Shouldn't you be starting to fail?" Sam asked. "I mean…"

Nefera smiled. "I take care of my host," she assured Sam. "If you spend enough time on self-repair – at least three or four hours in a week – you can extend a host's lifespan by about fifty percent, on top of the usual increase."

"About…three hundred years," Sam said.

"That's right. You can also stave off some of the effects which lead to sarcophagus dependency, especially if you only use the things rarely."

Sam sighed. "So what do we do now?" She asked.

"Search me," Nefera replied. "You're the one in charge; I only work here."

*

Jack and Daniel were taken to another spacious chamber, in which there stood a great table. Food of all kinds sat on great silver platters and bowls, and there were jugs of wine and beer.

"Food," Daniel said, as they were sat at the table, and their hands released. The guards left them alone.

"Lots of food," Jack agreed. "It's probably drugged."

Daniel nodded his agreement. "We shouldn't eat it."

"No."

After a few minutes, Daniel said: "Jack."

"Yes?"

"You're eating."

Jack stopped, alarmed. "So are you," he accused.

They put the food they had been eating down, but after a few minutes they were eating again.

"Do you think we're already drugged?" Jack asked.

"Could be," Daniel agreed. "Maybe in the air or in the food the Amahagger gave us."

"Or her breath."

"But we're immune to that now," Daniel pointed out.

"We're immune to Hathor's breath," Jack corrected. "Maybe not to Ayesha's."

Daniel shook his head. "I feel no immediate urge to worship and obey her," he said. "This is different."

"Then maybe her breath has a different effect," Jack suggested.

"Curran describes the same thing we experienced," Daniel argued.

"Well, something's doing it," Jack said.

"On that we agree," Daniel said, taking a deep draught of wine. "This is good food though."

"Can't argue there," Jack admitted.

"Jack," Daniel said, suddenly.

"What?"

"There's a man behind you."

"Oh. Ditto."

Jack dropped from his chair and ducked to the side as a heavy scimitar came crashing down where his head had been. Daniel pushed himself backwards, the back of his chair slamming into a second beefy warrior before he had time to react. His assailant toppled backwards, and Daniel rolled awkwardly from his seat as it fell. He scrambled to his feet, and with some difficulty lifted the heavy chair, swinging it with as much force as he could muster into the warrior's face.

Meanwhile, Jack's opponent was trying to dislodge his sword from the chair back. Jack kicked him in the kneecap, causing him to stumble, and put out his hand for balance. Taking advantage of his distraction, Jack leaped onto the table, then sprang agilely down behind the warrior, catching him in a headlock. He pushed, and the man's neck broke with a sickening crack.

"Jack?" Daniel asked, warily. He was used to violence from Jack, but not brutality.

"I don't know what came over me," Jack admitted, a little disturbed himself. "I just…suddenly wanted to _kill_ someone."

Daniel shivered as he picked up his attacker's scimitar. "Your guy left the door open," he said, pointing behind Jack.

Jack looked round, and nodded. "Let's go see what's behind door number three," he agreed, tugging the sword from his chair back with some difficulty.

Behind the door was another chamber, large and empty, lit from above, with lines of hieroglyphic writing along the wall. "Daniel." Jack cautioned. "Don't. Touch. Anything."

Daniel nodded absent-mindedly, and began walking slowly along the wall. "This isn't Egyptian," he said. "The characters are, but the language is more like Pashtu. It looks like a poem."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Any good?" He moved to the only other door, and shoved on it. It did not move.

"In the original it might be," Daniel admitted. "Translation doesn't do much for it though. It seems to be about a man going down from the mountains to the sea. He's given three gifts by three women," Daniel continued. "A maiden, a matron and a crone…"

"This is fascinating," Jack said, unconvincingly. "But since there isn't any other way out, why don't we go back and…"

 _Boom_.

Jack stared in alarm at the door that had just slammed closed behind them. "Daniel!"

"I didn't touch anything, I swear."

"Then why did the door close?" Jack demanded. "And why…why are my feet wet?"

"Water!" Daniel called. "There's water coming in from somewhere."

"Well, that's great, but how do we stop it?"

"I don't know," Daniel admitted. "How about the door?"

"Sealed tight," Jack replied, hurling himself against the slab.

Daniel frowned, and went to try the other door; the one they had not entered through. It was as solid as the first, but next to it was a panel, covered in hieroglyphs. "Jack!" He called.

"What?" Jack responded, impatiently.

"There's a combination lock."

"What?" The water had reached Daniel's knees.

"This panel, it has a series of pictograms on it."

"And?"

"I think it relates to the poem. The three gifts that the man is given help him to survive the perils that threaten to overtake him when he's swept away by a wave. So putting them in order…" He looked around the walls. "Comb." He pressed a pictogram and it lit up. "Net. And…Oar." He pressed the third symbol, and nothing happened.

"So at the end of the poem, does our hero drown by any chance?" Jack asked, acidly. He came and stood behind Daniel.

"No. He comes back to shore, marries the maiden and…Marriage!" He cried, pressing the image of a knot.

Almost immediately, the water began to drain away, and after it was gone, the door opened.

"You're good," Jack admitted.

"I am _so_ good," Daniel replied.

"You da man."

"Oh yeah!"

"How you feeling?" Jack asked.

"Pretty good," Daniel admitted. "Kind of…stoked."

"Yeah; me too," Jack agreed.

Behind the door stood four armed guards.

Jack brandished his sword. "You want a piece of me?" He demanded, and he and Daniel charged.

*

Sam was pacing fretfully up and down the cell, practically buzzing with tension.

"Try to relax," Nefera suggested.

"Don't tell me what…!" Sam broke off. "I'm sorry, I'm just…I don't know what I'm just, but I am."

"Your system is running on overload," Nefera explained. "The presence of a Goa'uld symbiote in a human body triggers a number of responses, including the secretion of various hormones – in particular epinephrine and other adrenal hormones."

"So this is like a massive adrenaline rush?"

"Yes. In the normal run of things, the symbiote would absorb most of the hormones, storing them for release when it needed to push the host body harder. Whatever is bringing out the Goa'uld instinct in you is also making you secrete the extra hormones, but without the symbiote to absorb them. That's why you're edgy, and why you still haven't properly felt that sock to the jaw I gave you."

Sam touched her face, where a great, purple bruise was spreading. "How hard…"

"A couple of those and Mike Tyson would have gone down. The adrenaline lets you shrug it off, but unlike a Goa'uld host, you don't have a symbiote repairing the damage."

"And the level must be increasing to remain effective," Sam realised. "Is my body going to keep on producing epinephrine indefinitely?" Sam asked.

"I have no idea," Nefera replied. "I would think so; or until it kills you anyway."

"I thought you wanted me to relax?" Sam said, panicking, her heart pounding. She could feel now that it was wrong; she was overreacting to a fear stimulus because of the constantly escalating adrenaline levels in her body.

"Sorry," Nefera said. "I didn't think. I forgot that most people fear death."

"You don't?"

"No. I don't want to die, but I'm not afraid of dying. But you _should_ try to relax. If you know any breathing exercises or anything, that would be good."

"Because the more excited I get, the more adrenaline I produce, and the closer I get to fatal adrenaline shock or a heart attack," Sam agreed. "I know."

"You could try to sleep," Nefera suggested.

"Too hyped," Sam replied.

"Would you like me to sing for you?"

"What?" Sam guffawed.

Nefera smiled. "I've been told that my singing is quite soothing."

"Alright then," Sam agreed.

"You can tell me to shut up if you don't like it," Nefera assured her, then she began to sing.

Nefera's singing voice was high and sweet. It wasn't a strong voice, she could probably never compete with a musical accompaniment, but a cappella there was something touchingly intimate about it. The song she sang was neither in English nor in Goa'uld, and Sam could not understand the words, but it was slow and sad, yet most definitely soothing. As Nefera sang, Sam lay back on the bed and closed her eyes, feeling the incredible tension in her body begin to ease. Nefera's singing grew nearer, and Sam felt the Ashrak sit on the bed beside her, but she was not afraid. Her mind began to wander. She saw a light behind her eyelids, but could not summon the energy to see what it was, and after a few more moments, she fell asleep.

Nefera lowered her hand from before Sam's face, and idly rearranged her hair. "Sleep well, Mistress," she whispered.

_*_

A light brought Sam back to consciousness, and she found herself fully awake in a matter of moments, with Nefera again sitting at her side.

"They have brought us food," Nefera told her, referring to a pair of robed servants.

"Thank you," Sam said, relieved to find herself speaking politely, and in English.

The first servant bowed and backed out, but the second reached out and took Sam's hand in supplication. "You are too kind, Mistress," he said, although he could not have understood what she had said.

"Harruna?" Sam whispered.

"Forgive me," the boy begged, pressing a large key into Sam's hand. "I failed you before, I…"

"Shh," she said, before continuing in halting Goa'uld, the language coming less easily now that she was actually _trying_ to speak it. "It's alright. There's nothing to forgive."

"I must go," he said.

"Of course. Go back to your village, Harruna, and be safe."

Harruna slipped out, and the door locked. There was a keyhole on the inside, confirming the suspicion that this was not a purpose built cell. Sam just hoped that the boy had given her the right key.

"Eat," Nefera told her. "You need your strength."

"I guess you were wrong about the room service," Sam said, as she tucked in. She discovered that she was in fact feeling incredibly hungry.

Nefera snorted. "But I ordered the lobster," she said.

"I've never seen a Goa'uld crack jokes before," Sam admitted.

"It's been known to happen," Nefera assured her. "Are you feeling better?"

"I am," Sam confirmed.

Nefera nodded. "While you rested, your hormone levels should have fallen. So long as you remain calm, you should be alright."

"I still can't feel the bruise on my cheek," Sam told her.

"Probably just numb," Nefera assured her, wary of telling Sam that she had placed her in a healing trance without permission.

"Are you hungry?" Sam asked.

"I'll be fine," Nefera assured her. "You're the one who needs the food. When you're done, we'll try to get you away from here."

"Yes," Sam agreed, distractedly. "Away."

*

"We rock!" Daniel declared, slapping Jack on the shoulder.

"We the man!" Jack agreed.

"I thought we might be done for with the swinging pendulum, though," Daniel admitted.

"Hah!" Jack scoffed. "No Edgar Allen Poe knock-off can stop SG-1. I was more worried about the poisoned darts."

"What was your favourite?" Daniel asked.

"The leopard was fun," Jack replied.

"I am glad to see you both enjoyed our little tests," Ayesha said. Jack and Daniel looked around in alarm, realising that they had returned to the same dining hall that they had originally left.

Ayesha was clad in a simple black robe, which flowed about her, covering her head to toe, with a hood concealing her face in shadows. Only her mouth was clearly visible to them, and the burning of her eyes.

"Tests?" Jack asked, incredulous. "So do we get a diploma now?"

Ayesha smiled her serpent's smile, and Daniel shivered. "I've got a bad feeling about this, Jack," he said.

"Care to be more specific?"

"Like that was just the mid-term, and now it's finals week already."

Ayesha's smile deepened. "We do not entirely understand your mode of speech," she admitted. "But if you divine that there are greater trials ahead, you are correct. Your Nefera chose well. As did your Major Samantha Carter," she assured Jack. "But it will avail them naught. You, Daniel, and you, Jack, are _our_ champions now."

*

Sam fit the key into the lock and turned. There was a brief resistance, which gave way with a heavy clunk, and when she tried the door, it opened.

"I have to hand it to you," Nefera admitted. "Your toy-boy is quite resourceful."

"He is not, my toy-boy," Sam replied, tensely.

Nefera backed off. "My mistake," she said.

Sam shrugged, impatiently, and peeked out through the door. She saw no one in the corridor, at least as far as the next junction, forty feet away, but she could hear breathing from behind the heavy door. She motioned to Nefera, who seemed to catch her drift, and stood by her. Sam held up her hand, and counted down from three on her fingers.

They threw their weight at the door, slamming it back into the corridor wall, and taking a guard with it. A second guard stepped forward to aim a blow with his staff weapon for Sam's head, but Nefera stepped in front of her, catching the staff near to the guard's hands and stopping the blow dead. Then she snapped up her hand, striking the warrior hard in the chin, and he was thrown hard to the ground.

Sam knelt by the first guard, and snatched the zat'nik'tel from his wrist. A staff blast scorched the wall beside her, and she turned, firing at the figure who had just rounded the corner from the junction. The Jaffa fell, and Sam leaped to her feet, rage filling her as she levelled the zat for a killing blast.

"Lek tol, shol'va!" She pronounced, and squeezed the handle of the zat.

Nefera caught Sam's wrist, forcing it up so that that blast shot over Teal'c's head.

"Di'dak'dida?" Sam demanded, flushing red with anger.

"Kree ta, Major Carter," Nefera cautioned, speaking softly and calmly. "You'll thank me later," she added, in English.

Sam's anger faded a little, and she began to emerge from her chemically-induced fugue state. "He…betrayed us," she said, without conviction.

"You know he is as blameless as we are," Nefera said. "And he did not have to miss you." She smoothly relieved Sam of her weapon, then took her by the hand. "Let's go, Mistress," she said.

"Yes," Sam agreed. "We must reach the throne room."

"Throne room?" Nefera asked, confused. "We must get away from this place before it kills you."

"She has my friends," Sam growled.

Nefera relented. "Aye. To the throne room, then."

*

"I'm still a little hazy on what you need champions for," Jack asked.

Ayesha nodded, and stepped towards the two of them. She had no guards with her, but Jack did not seem to be able to summon the energy or the will to attack her. Perhaps he was delirious, or drugged – although he was sure that Hathor's drug had not affected him so strongly – but even shrouded as she was, he was quite certain that he had never in his life seen anything so transcendently lovely. In his eye, the expression of arrogant cruelty which played about her lips seemed softened, and the fire that was all he could see of her eyes only added to her appeal.

"Many centuries ago," Ayesha told them. "We came hence with our Lord and Father Kallikrates, our Lady Mother Sothis, and three companions…"

"And an army of servants and Jaffa," Daniel added.

"Quiet," Jack chided Daniel, a little surprised at himself for doing so.

Ayesha smiled benevolently at them both, and Jack felt his heart swell with love and desire for her. "For all of our arrangements, we were little prepared for the hardships of the expedition," she admitted. "The way was harder then, and one of our number was lost before we even found the Great Road of Kôr. At last however," she told them, closing her eyes as she remembered. "We came here, to the lost city of Kôr, seat of Asar's power.

"That was when the others turned on us."

"Surely not?" Jack asked, with mock incredulity. He felt bad for having done so, but it just slipped out.

Ayesha slapped Jack across the face. As before, in her throne room, the motion was casual, almost playful, but the force that struck him was enough to twist his body around, and drive him to one knee.

"We do not know what your previous mistress allowed, but _we_ shall not tolerate insolence," she told him.

Jack's head rang, but seemed clearer. "Forgive me, mistress," he whispered, humbly, but it was mostly for show.

Ayesha pursed her lips and looked at Daniel. She walked to him, and placed a hand on his cheek. "Kneel, our servant," she said. For a moment, Daniel looked as though he might resist, but as her slap had weakened her hold on Jack, her gentle touch tightened her grip around Daniel, and he sank reverently to his knees.

"Merenebt was the first to turn, attacking Sothis as she rested. Kallikrates slew him, but then left Sothis to accompany us and our protector, Akhenra, into the catacombs, where I knew the Tomb of Asar must lie. There, Kallikrates slew Akhenra. He claimed that our guardian – Osiris' most trusted servant – had conspired with Sothis to destroy us, and that he would be our protector now, but we saw the truth. Our own father planned to kill us once we had guided him past the trials, and so we struck him down.

"With the traitor Kallikrates' blood still hot in our mouth, we entered the Tomb of Asar, and stood in the Flame of Eternity. Our host was all but destroyed, but we absorbed the power which threatened to blast her to ash, and grew strong enough to make her whole, and more than whole." At that moment, Ayesha cast off the black robe, standing before them in a simple white dress. Her raven hair was bound into a complex plait threaded with gold, her left hand wrapped in a ribbon device, but she wore – and needed – no other adornment. She was, if anything, even more beautiful than when they had first seen her, and Jack found himself literally lost for words.

"Such we were when healed," Ayesha told them, raising her arms in a gesture of triumph. "And such we have remained, with no need for the use of a sarcophagus."

"How…?" Daniel managed to croak.

"Through the power of the Tomb," she replied. "Of Asar. A power that only the mightiest lord or Queen of the Goa'uld could hope to wield." She lowered her arms, smiling on her champions. "But that power will not be complete until Asar rises to sit at my side," she said. "Hence our need for champions who might pass through the trials and prove worthy of the greatest of our kind who ever lived."

*

With a groan, Teal'c came to. His memories were hazy from the moment he first beheld Ayesha, but he remembered that he had been overcome by the compulsion to obey and protect her; a compulsion that was rising in him once more. He knew that he had shaken that influence long enough to resist blasting Major Carter, but that he might not have the strength to do so if confronted by his friends nearer to the Goa'uld Queen's influence. Much as it pained him, Teal'c realised that his only hope was to flee from Ayesha's vicinity, and seek assistance from the Amahagger.

With some difficulty, he pulled himself to his feet, his symbiote working to shake the last effects of the zat blast from his limbs. Then he gathered his staff weapon, and headed for the palace exit.

*

Sam hurried into the throne room, and began searching the dais.

Nefera followed more cautiously. "Mistress? What do you seek?"

"Anything," Sam replied. "The source of her power. I don't know what it is, but what is controlling us is not coming from Ayesha, but from the Tomb, and that means I can take that power from her."

"Mistress?"

"Or destroy it," Sam added, hastily. "Either way, it will free us, and cripple her."

Nefera nodded, not willing to question her mistress further. She took up a post, watching for approaching enemies.

"God damnit!" Sam swore. "There's nothing here. Whatever she uses to channel the power, she must keep on her. We'll have to find Ayesha."

"And do what?" Nefera demanded. "You've seen what she can do to us."

Sam turned and punched Nefera hard in the face. The Ashrak saw it coming, and knew that she was good enough to block the attack, but this was punishment from her mistress for speaking out of turn, and she let it come. Nefera tumbled hard down the dais, refusing to break her fall, her head cracking against the stone. Sam approached and stood over her.

"Forgive me, Mistress," Nefera begged.

"You are forgiven," Sam told her, reverting to Goa'uld again. "I need a weapon."

"A moment, mistress," the Ashrak replied. She rose, unsteadily to her feet, and shuffled behind a row of pillars. "I hid my pack when we first entered here," she confided. "I thought that they would not search their own hall." She emerged, and handed Sam an ribbon device.

"Well done," Sam congratulated her, stroking her face in a possessive manner that sent a nostalgic pang through Nefera's heart. The comforting feeling of being owned and controlled, of never having to make a choice, threatened to overwhelm her. The temptation to simply surrender to her training was almost too strong to resist.

"Mistress," Nefera whispered, reverently.

"Come!" Sam commanded, and she turned and swept away, leaving Nefera to follow in her wake.

*

"When we climbed the hidden stair to the Shrine of Asar, and emerged under the light, Sothis turned on us in anger," Ayesha said, still caught up in her fascination with her own life story. "She attacked us, and we blasted our mother with our power, smiting the Queen within her, and leaving the husk of her to flee in terror to die in the mountains."

"What became of your Jaffa?" Daniel asked.

"Our servants were all rewarded, those who would be loyal to us. With their strength, we cowed the tribes of the Amahagger, and they took mates among them. When the Goa'uld within them grew however, we knew that they plotted against us already, and we slew every last one of them. We realised then that we needed no prim'ta to assure the loyalty of our servants."

Daniel nodded, his gut churning at the thought of so many Jaffa being left to rot without their prim'ta. "And you've been searching for your champion since then?"

"We have sent many champions into the mine, but all have proven unworthy."

"Men like Alex Curran?"

"You know of him?"

"He made his way back to his homeland," Daniel explained. "His tale brought us here."

"Fascinating," Ayesha said. "We knew he was strong; even to emerge from the mines defeated takes exceptional courage. But we never thought he might survive." She sounded almost disappointed that he had possessed the will to live without her.

"What are the challenges?" Jack asked, impatiently.

"Eager to begin?" Ayesha asked, with a smile, and Jack realised that he had been.

"No," he lied. "Just curious."

Ayesha's smile grew more cruel. "We know that you think you are strong," she said. "That you will not do as we wish. That is why we have kept your mistresses alive. They will remain so only as long as you comply with our wishes."

"Even if we succeed, you'll kill them," Daniel accused, strain evident in his voice.

"Perhaps," Ayesha replied. "Their fate shall lie with Lord Asar, should you succeed. Should you fail, we shall smite them with our power. However, should you refuse to perform this task for us, then we shall press them to our will, and they shall take their own lives, in the slowest and most horrific manner they each can devise for themselves. If your Nefera has a fear of rats, then she shall capture them and starve them, until they turn on each other, then cast herself among them to be eaten alive." She turned from Daniel to Jack. "If your Major Samantha Carter has a dread of fire, then she shall set herself ablaze. Do you understand?"

Jack and Daniel nodded, slowly, and inside they felt their hearts twisting into conflicted knots.

*

Sam heard the voices ahead, but she ignored all but one: The voice of her enemy, her rival; the Queen who dared stand between her and power.

"Mistress," Nefera hissed. "Be careful, we should not…"

Sam shook off the Ashrak's restraining hand and ploughed forward, striding angrily into the dining hall where Ayesha was attempting to wrest control of her servants – _Friends_ , her inner voice reminded her. _They are your friends_ – and raised her hand to deliver a castigating blow to the presumptuous breeder. As with Nefera, she sensed something far more potent than the usual twist of nausea as she approached the Goa'uld; an impression of fierce power, barely contained by the flesh that housed it.

Ayesha waved a dismissive hand, without even looking to see who had entered at her back. _That arrogance will be her downfall,_ Sam thought, but when she tried to summon her wrath to strike out through the ribbon device, nothing happened. Seething with rage, thinking that Nefera must have betrayed her after all, she tried to attack Ayesha hand-to-hand, but found herself rooted to the spot.

"Major Samantha Carter," Ayesha greeted her, moving around so that she could face Sam, as well as Jack and Daniel. "How good of you to join us."

"Sam," Jack said. "You can fight this; you're strong."

 _Stupid human_! Sam wanted to cry out. _Do you think I'm not fighting? Do you think your friend could defeat this when I can't_. Suddenly she was afraid, more so than ever before in her life. Even when Jolinar had been controlling her body, leaving her nothing but a prisoner in her own skin, she had not been so afraid as when she realised that she had begun to think of herself as something more than human. This was no invader in her body; she was _becoming_ a Goa'uld.

Jack started towards Ayesha.

"Stop him," the Queen commanded, calmly, and Sam turned and knocked her commanding officer down with the hand device. He tumbled backwards, and would have fallen hard to the ground if Daniel had not caught him.

Ayesha laughed, coldly. "And did you slay your companion?" She asked. "Did you turn on each other like starving dogs?" Sam felt bitterly ashamed to think that she had done just that. "We do not smell her blood on you though," Ayesha said. "So perhaps…Come out, Nefera," she ordered.

Stiffly, as though fighting every movement, Nefera emerged from the shadow of the doorway, holding her magnetic crossbow aimed at Ayesha. She looked as though she was trying very hard to pull the trigger, but was unable to do so.

"Drop your weapon," Ayesha ordered. "Now!" She snapped, furiously, as Nefera hesitated, her eyes straying to Sam as though to ask permission. Her hands shaking, she deactivated the crossbow, and set it on the ground at her feet. "Now move over beside Major Samantha Carter," she instructed. Nefera obeyed, reluctantly, and Ayesha moved to pick up the crossbow.

"Wait," Daniel begged.

"What must defiance bring?" Ayesha demanded of Sam.

"Sam, no," Daniel said.

Sam looked at Daniel, her eyes strained in concentration, but she turned to Ayesha and answered in the Goa'uld tongue: "Punishment."

Ayesha nodded once, and threw the bow to Sam. Without hesitation, she caught the weapon and fired. Daniel looked away. Magnetic coils in the sides of the bow whined softly as they propelled a trinium-tipped bolt through Nefera's thigh. She grimaced, and gave a small grunt of pain, but did not scream, and managed by sheer force of will to keep her footing. Sam's hand dropped to her side, still holding the bow.

"You are strong," Ayesha commended Nefera. "But you will live only so long as your champion serves our will."

Slowly, Daniel looked up, and saw with obvious relief that Nefera was alive.

"We need you both alive and healthy," the Queen continued, turning back to Jack and Daniel. "We only need them alive. Now, remembering the lesson that Major Samantha Carter has just taught you, are you ready to do as we command?"

"Yes," Jack said, hoarsely.

Ayesha raised an exquisitely arched eyebrow.

Jack sighed. "Yes, Mistress."

*

Teal'c found leaving the temple easier than he had expected. When he told the guards that She had sent him on an important mission, they simply allowed him to pass. Apparently, the idea that anyone was beyond her control was an alien concept to them.

Teal'c jogged down the bridge to the road, wondering who he might be able to persuade to aid him if obedience to Ayesha was so deeply ingrained. The answer came sooner than he had expected, as a voice called to him from the roadside.

"Master Teal'c," it hissed, softly.

Teal'c glanced around suspiciously.

"Master Teal'c, it is I; Harruna."

Teal'c looked over his shoulder, confirming that he was well out of the guards' sight, and ducked into the undergrowth. The youth was crouching under a bush, looking tired, hungry and afraid.

"Why are you here?" Teal'c asked.

"I was trying to think of a way to aid the Mistress," he said. "She told me to return to my village, but I have no village; I am an outcast. I gave her a key to her cell, but I fear that she has been recaptured. The guards at the gate whisper that the two strange women will be held as hostages to the two men who undertake the tests."

"I too seek to aid Major Carter," Teal'c said. "But I require assistance to do so."

"I think I might know who can help you," Harruna told him.

_*_

"If she deems them strong enough, Ayesha will send your friends into the mines and catacombs to face the trials of Asar," Harruna explained. "The mines extend for miles underground, and link with the city catacombs. Obviously, the route by which I led the Mis…Major Carter" – he corrected himself – "into the city will be guarded now that they know of it, but there are dozens of connections."

"And your father knows of them?"

"Some. Most importantly, he knows of the entrance to the trial grounds."

The youth was leading Teal'c up a steep escarpment, not far from the Hawk tribe's village. At the top there was a cave, completely hidden from below.

"Harruna," a man's voice called out. "Who is that with you."

"One of the strangers, father," Harruna answered.

There was a short pause. "Enter, stranger," the voice invited. Teal'c did so, ducking under the low entrance.

Inside, the cave was spacious and cosy, the floor laid with hide mats. There were two people within. One was a man of middle years, with dark skin and greying hair, and the ankh tattoo on his forehead. Years of care hung heavily on his narrow face, and his eyes were blackened and sightless. The other was a woman, only a few years younger. Her skin was fairer than her husband's, nearer the colour of an Indian, and her black hair was shot through with five silver-white streaks.

"Teal'c," Harruna said. "This is my father, Hasdrucar, and my mother, Nayasa."

"Greetings, Teal'c," the man said. "Please be seated, and enjoy what humble hospitality we have to offer.

"Thank you, Hasdrucar," Teal'c said, settling himself opposite the couple. "But my time is short. My friends have been captured by the Goa'uld Queen, Ayesha." Harruna flinched.

"Few enough there are who would dare speak that name," Hasdrucar observed. "Even if they knew it."

"I do not fear the names of false gods," Teal'c told him.

"My son has told me a little of your companions," Hasdrucar said. "You are the dark warrior, who bears a golden sign upon his brow?"

"I am."

"He said that the others were a woman of the mountains, a man with glass eyes and an elder with a warrior's step."

"Those were three of them," Teal'c agreed.

"He said that the men looked strong," Hasdrucar added. "And that was about all the sense I could get from the wretch before he flew into raptures about your golden-haired mistress. I told him that any woman of such power and beauty would soon attract the wrath of Ayesha, and he ran off to save her."

"Are you able to help us?" Teal'c asked, pointedly.

"I may be able," Hasdrucar admitted. "If your companions are strong, then she will choose them to be her champions; to face the trials and become the host to Asar if successful. Many years ago now, I was deemed strong enough to undertake this quest, and although I failed, I at least emerged from the mines alive. I can tell my son how to find the exit I used, and he can lead you to the testing grounds, so that you can bring your friends out the same way."

"What of Major Carter?" Teal'c demanded, as Nayasa approached, and handed him a cup of broth. He accepted the offering, and the woman smiled, brightly. She had a strange air about her, Teal'c realised; an almost childlike wonder that he found appealing. "Thank you," he said, and she smiled even more.

"The golden-haired one," Hasdrucar surmised, from his son's reverent sigh. "She is likely dead already. If she is not, no-one could reach her now."

"I could," Nayasa said.

Hasdrucar looked almost astonished to hear his wife speak. "It would be too dangerous," he told her.

"How could you gain access?" Teal'c asked.

It was Hasdrucar who answered him. "My wife is one of the Touched. Those who bear the mark of Asar on their brow" – he indicated her hair – "are gifted with strange knowledge. Nayasa is a healer, although she never learned it. The Touched are both revered and dreaded by the Amahagger, and permitted to go anywhere within the valley. They are forbidden access to the city, but no guard would challenge her. But Ayesha would not spare her for the mark she bears," he added, darkly. "She would be killed if she attempted any defiance."

"Then you could," Harruna implored. "None will strike at She's champion, even one who failed."

"It is too dangerous," Hasdrucar insisted.

Nayasa sat by her husband, and threaded her hand in his. "I have a plan," she told him, with a sad smile.

"Naya, please," Hasdrucar begged.

"We must help," Nayasa insisted. "You know what will happen otherwise."

Hasdrucar frowned, miserably. "We shall do what we can for them," he agreed. "But you can do nothing, Master Teal'c."

"Simply Teal'c."

"Teal'c, then; you can still do nothing. We…" He paused.

Nayasa stood, and held out her hand to her son. Obediently, Harruna stood, and allowed his mother to lead him from the cave.

Hasdrucar watched them go, before turning back to Teal'c. "We will help you as best we can," he said. "For the sake of our son."

Teal'c raised a questioning eyebrow. "Your son?" He asked, realising that his gesture would mean nothing to the blind man.

"I was the strongest, fastest and bravest man among all the Hawk tribe," Hasdrucar told him. "I was envied by men, and had my pick of women, until the day that a woman – She – picked me. After I emerged from the mines, blinded and half-mad, I was cast out as incomplete and impure, and no woman would look on me. None but Nayasa. I feared I had lost my chance to father a child, until she took pity on me. The Touched usually do not marry, but Nayasa broke that taboo, and came to live as an outcast with her outcast lover.

"When Harruna was born, the son of a blind man and a Touched woman, but without a single blemish upon him, the chief took him from us, to raise as his own. When he was ten however, before his majority and the receipt of his tattoo, Harruna learned of his parentage from his nurse and fled the village to find us.

"Now, he grows strong and clever, and I am given to understand that he is well-favoured by the young women of the tribe, for all that he is an outcast. Nayasa and I greatly fear that She will turn her eye on him when he is but a little older. I do not think that I could bear to lose him again, and I know that it would kill Naya."

"What of the other Amahagger?" Teal'c asked. "Could they help me?"

"I doubt it," Hasdrucar replied. "Perhaps they could, but they fear and worship Ayesha absolutely. I certainly couldn't help you to convince them, and nor could my wife or child. Nayasa they think is a mute simpleton; they believe this of all the Touched. As for Harri, he is an outcast like his parents, and many are jealous of him besides."

"He is a brave boy, if impetuous," Teal'c said. "I believe that he will grow to be a fine man."

"As do I, Master Teal'c," Hasdrucar agreed with a sigh. "Now perhaps we should hear my wife's plan."

*

Daniel and Jack had been led from the dining hall by Ayesha's sombre handmaidens, leaving Sam and Nefera as hostages to their good behaviour. They were instructed to bathe, and dressed in matching outfits: black leather pants and matching, loose woollen tunics.

"You look ridiculous," Jack told Daniel.

"So do you," Daniel replied.

They were led to the throne room, where Ayesha awaited with her hostages. Sam and Nefera stood at the foot of the dais, flanking Ayesha as she sat on her throne, but lower than her, although they both stood. The two women had plainly received similar treatment to Jack and Daniel's, having been washed and redressed in plain white robes, belted at the waist. The robes were looser and less flattering than Ayesha's gown, and much like those of her servants, further emphasising her superiority. Each of them held a leather belt and a sheath knife in her hands.

"You okay, Carter?" Jack asked. Sam merely glowered at him, as though it were his fault she was a captive, rather than the other way around.

With a wave of her hand, Ayesha dismissed her guards and servants, secure in her power, and with good reason. The sight of her made Jack's breath catch in his throat, and it was hard for him to think of anything else in her presence. With regal grace, she stood, walked down to Jack and Daniel and stood between them. She ran a possessive hand across each man's shoulders, the touch weakening their resistance so that when she held her hands out, they each took one, reverently and without bidding.

Sam and Nefera followed with a listless, zombie-like tread, as She led her champions back up the dais to the curtain, and through into a large antechamber. Here there was a great, clear, circular pool, set in a stone alcove, with a soft, quarter-circle couch beside it. There was a second, curtained exit, and the wall opposite the pool was covered by a hanging rug. Torches flickered in wall brackets, reflecting from the water and lighting the room in an inconstant, unsettling fashion.

"Our brave champions," she said. "What you are about to see, none but we and our chosen ones have seen in more than ten millennia." She reached up, and grasped a torch, tugging it down with a heavy clunk. The hanging rug slid away, revealing a great stone door, which swung silently inwards.

"Beyond lie the great mines of Kôr," She said. "Once you pass within, there can be no return by this route, for the doors open only from without, and you could beat upon them forever without being heard. These are the most ancient workings of Kôr, now cut off from the sunlit land above, save for this passage, and that at the end of the great road. Your way will be lit; you have only to follow the path prepared, and to overcome the challenges prepared by mighty Asar in the years long past.

"If you win through, then we shall meet you, and together we shall embrace the power of Asar. Then shall we go forth and bend this world beneath and iron fist, and make it the first of our conquests."

Jack and Daniel shared an anxious glance.

"But we do not send you forth unarmed," Ayesha assured them, and gestured behind her.

Sam stepped forward, and buckled the belt around Jack's waist, roughly pulling it a notch too tight.

"Major Samantha Carter," Ayesha cautioned, softly.

With a sneer, Sam loosened the belt, and attached the knife at Jack's right hip. She stepped back, and spat in his face. "Shol'va," she muttered, her voice angry, while traces of pain and confusion showed in her eyes. Jack was too stunned to react, but Ayesha gave a soft chuckle as she motioned to Nefera.

The Ashrak hobbled forward and slid her arms around Daniel, and held him a moment before drawing the belt around him. "Be strong, Daniel," she whispered, as she fixed the sheath to the belt. Then she pressed her mouth against his in a passionate kiss. Ayesha chuckled again, as Nefera pushed herself against Daniel, sliding a hand into his tunic. Daniel raised a hand to Nefera's face, holding her gently as he responded.

"Enough," Ayesha said, suddenly impatient. Nefera broke the kiss at once, the limp as she returned to her place at She's shoulder a telling reminder of what would happen if she dawdled. "Remember, both of you, that you do this for _our_ glory."

Daniel restrained himself from comment. Plainly the idea that he could take interest in another woman in her presence displeased Ayesha greatly, and he did not wish for Sam or Nefera to suffer for that.

"Go down now, my champions," Ayesha commanded. "And may your strength prove worthy of Asar."

Jack and Daniel turned, and stepped into the shadows beyond the door. The darkness folded around them like a blanket as they passed the threshold, and a moment later, the door swung closed.

*

"Fine choices," Ayesha commended her captives, although perhaps not chosen for the right reasons," she added, with a sly glance at Nefera. "What was your intent?" She asked. "Did you think you might command Lord Asar when he rises? Or did you merely seek to lick the crumbs from his table?"

"She's the brains," Nefera replied. "I just came for the scenery."

Ayesha slapped Nefera across the face. The motion was gentle, but as Jack had already discovered, there was a force more than physical behind Ayesha's strength, and Nefera was lifted from her feet before dropping to the ground, hard. She felt the impact all down the right side of her body, like a low-level blast from a hand device.

"Come," Ayesha told Sam. "Sit." She gestured to the couch which curved around the edge of the pool. "You, stay there," he added, pointing to Nefera without looking.

Sam sat, watching the Queen with wary eyes.

"Let us show you a little of our power," Ayesha said, and she spread her hand over the pool. The surface of the water was perfectly still, but something moved beneath it.

Sam looked, and after a moment she realised with a start that what she saw moving was Jack and Daniel, making their way down a narrow, torch lit stairway. "How does it work?" She asked, recognising with a mixture of annoyance and relief that this was Sam Carter's question, not Jolinar's.

Ayesha sneered, plainly considering such matters beneath her. "It is unimportant," she said, speaking as though to a child. "What matters is that it permits us to see anything that occurs within our domain. When Asar rises, we shall look beyond these valley walls, and the world shall be spread beneath our feet."

"And you will be monarch of all you survey," Sam said, distractedly, still wondering what by what mechanism the seeing pool functioned.

"Yes," Ayesha agreed. "As we rule over those two now."

"Like Yertle the Turtle."

"Your chosen does not find us amusing," Ayesha purred, a deadly edge just beneath the sonorous silk of her voice.

"They will never yield to you," Sam said, defiantly.

Ayesha smiled, a kind smile, but hollow. "Silly child," she chided. "How old are you?"

"Thirty-six," Sam replied, without thinking.

"Then you are a child indeed," Ayesha scoffed, her voice still gentle but a dangerous look in her blazing eyes. "But you will learn. All humans are alike under the skin, and all of them have their price."

"So do Goa'uld," Nefera added, from her place on the floor.

"Quite so," Ayesha agreed. "Although usually far higher. But if we offer your servant wealth, power and the comforts of the flesh, he will turn on you, and strike you down in as cruel a manner as pleases us."

"Never," Sam replied, although the Goa'uld part of her mind agreed with Ayesha.

"What would your price be?" Ayesha wondered aloud. "How much pain could you stand, or how much inducement would you require, before you begged to worship us?"

"I can stand pain," Sam retorted. Defiance and angry pride rose up inside her, swamping her intellectual curiosity, and she could feel her self slipping; the sense Goa'uldness taking control again. "And we would never answer to a _brood-mare_ ," she added.

"Stand up," Ayesha said, and Sam did so. "Turn around; right around. Now abase yourself before us, slave."

Sam obeyed, puppet-like, finishing by throwing herself prostrate on the floor at Ayesha's feet. _Damn it!_ Both parts of her mind screamed. _Get up!_

"You are insignificant, Major Samantha Carter," Ayesha told her. "If you were any kind of threat to us, we would have destroyed you already."

"Except that you need…" Sam paused, struggling with herself. "Me to make Jack and Daniel do what you want."

Ayesha laughed. "We have other ways of bending a man to our will," she assured Sam. "It merely pleases us to do things this way. Now. Sit, and watch; you also," she added, gesturing to Nefera. "You shall both be privileged to witness our triumph before your deaths."

*

"Well, this is nice," Daniel commented. "Positively homey in a dank, foetid kind of way."

"I guess this wasn't where the good folks of Kôr hung out of an evening," Jack agreed. Ahead of them another pair of torches flared into life, while the ones behind them flickered out.

At the bottom of there stairs was a winding path, with a rough floor, once crudely levelled, but now broken by eroded channels and fallen rock. Daniel decided that the traffic must be pretty sparse; plainly Ayesha had not been exaggerating about how few people knew that the passage even existed. To either side of the path, the cavern stretched back out of sigh, the gaping void broken by the ghostly forms of pillars and boulders, some natural, and some clearly hewn by human hand, millennia before. The torches hung on these carved pillars, beside the remains of graven faces, faded, but still bearing a timeless dignity.

"This is incredible," Daniel whispered, examining one of the faces in detail.

"This one sucks," Jack declared.

Daniel joined his friend, and saw that he was more-or-less right. The pillar that he was examining had been crudely hewn with a heavy hand, the features lacking the detail of the other carvings. "It's less eroded," he realised, running his fingers over the surface.

"So?" Jack asked.

"It's newer," Daniel explained. "Carved much more recently, maybe in imitation of the older pieces, but without such precise tools."

"But carved by who?" Jack asked.

Daniel turned to face Jack. "An indigenous tribe of ape-men," he said, with certainty.

"What makes you…? I'm going to regret it if I finish that question, aren't I?"

"You might regret it anyway," Daniel said.

Jack turned, and sure enough there were Daniel's ape-men; six of them, squatting in the shadows and watching the two humans with undisguised suspicion from under heavy brows. They were heavyset creatures, hunched and powerful-looking, with ghastly pale skin and white hair. Their eyes were huge, and almost all pupil, and they were dressed in rough tunics of furless hide. The nearest, larger than the others, and apparently a leader of some sort, wore a belt around his waist, with a sheath knife at one hip.

"What the hell are those?" Jack asked.

"I don't know," Daniel replied. "Prehistory was never my strong suit. But whatever they are, they don't seem fond of the light. Let's just keep moving, shall we?"

They walked slowly along the path, keeping an eye on the ape-men as they did so. Despite their hunched gait, the creatures moved with a surprising grace, and Daniel felt that there was a great, tragic dignity in their carriage. They reminded him of HG Wells' Morlocks, an outcast underclass of invisible labourers, and he wondered if they had served the people of Kôr, as the workers served on P3R-118.

Jack grimaced. "So does that knife look like the ones Ayesha gave us to you?"

"Yes it does."

"So at least one poor sap never made it to these catacombs," Jack reasoned. "Which I'd say makes it a fair guess that they won't stay out of the light forever."

"Just keep an eye on them," Daniel advised, sensing the soldier's tension. "I think I can see a door ahead."

Sure enough, the path came to a halt not two-hundred metres further on, at the threshold of a great iron double door. The door was carved with many lines of hieroglyphs, and it had no handle. Daniel paused, aware of an air of expectation among the Morlocks.

"Best grab a torch," Daniel said. "I'll need to read the markings to open the door and…"

"Hell with that," Jack declared. He charged forward, and shoved against the centre of the double doors as hard as he could. They would not budge.

"Jack!" Daniel called out, alarmed. Apparently, the doorstep was not only too dark for reading, it was dark enough for the light-hating ape-men to tolerate, and they leaped forward with a chorus of angry cries.

Jack turned, drawing his knife, and slashed open the first arm that reached for him. He lashed out, cutting deep into the pale flesh of his foes. Hands clutched at him, threatening to overwhelm him, but as suddenly as they had attacked, they were gone, and he was bathed in a golden light.

"Back!" Daniel yelled, waving the torch at a straggling Morlock. The ghost-pale hominids retreated from the flame and the light, leaving only one of their number, his throat slashed open by Jack's knife. Jack lashed out at a straggler, but Daniel grabbed his wrist.

"Let them go," Daniel said. They won't enter the light. Jack scowled, but lowered his arm, and cleaned and sheathed the knife. Satisfied, Daniel turned and examined the doors.

"Do we need to wait for you to translate the whole thing and tell me a story about a man going shopping?" Jack asked.

"No; just these," Daniel assured him, pointing to a cartouche at the outer edge of each door.

"What do they say?"

Daniel pushed on one, and the door swung open; it was hinged at the middle, where the two doors met. "It says: 'open this side'," Daniel told Jack, smugly.

"I'd have got there in the end," Jack grumbled, following Daniel through. As the light passed through the doors, the Morlocks moved forward again, Jack drew his knife, but Daniel caught him by the wrist again.

"No!" Daniel said. "Look."

Jack watched, and saw the leader come forward and gently touch the fallen Morlock's face. He made a low, gravelly sound in his throat, and gently closed the eyes of his dead compatriot. Moving cautiously, the other Morlocks came up, and each in turn touched the dead one's face. Then four of the largest slid their arms under the shoulders and hips of the body, and lifted it into the air.

The Morlocks left, with great solemnity.

"What the hell was that?" Jack asked. "A monkey funeral?"

"They're intelligent, Jack," Daniel told him. "They have a language, and a culture. Plainly they also practise some manner of funereal rite; maybe ritual burial, cremation or cannibalism."

"Cannibalism?"

"To take the strength of the fallen back into the tribe," Daniel explained.

"You call that a culture?" Jack asked. "Never mind," he added, before Daniel could get going again. "So what were they?"

Daniel shrugged. "As I said, I'm not a prehistorian, but I'd guess that they were a form of Neanderthal or other hominid, fairly close to modern humans once, but adapted to subterranean living in an area with little light."

"No light, more like," Jack said.

"No," Daniel disagreed. "They had huge eyes. If there was no light, their sight organs would have atrophied." He swung the iron door closed. "I guess we'll never really know."

"You think they'll come after us?"

"I doubt it. As soon as we passed the door, it was as though we ceased to exist. Their universe ends at this threshold. To them, we're as dead as that poor guy whose throat you slit."

"Hey!" Jack took umbrage. "He attacked me, remember."

"Well if you'd waited, no-one would have had to die. You know, maybe one of these days you'll actually stop and consider the consequences of your actions before you decide to start hitting someone; I think it's one of the signs of the Apocalypse," he added, bitterly.

"Ouch," Jack said, as Daniel stalked off ahead of him, the torches again flaring up at his approach.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Daniel said, with a sigh. "That was a little harsh. I guess I'm just tense."

_*_

After a while – Jack was not sure how long, but not more than an hour, he thought – Daniel put out a hand to stop him.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"Trap," Daniel replied.

"How do you know?"

Daniel pointed to an inscription on the flagstone in front of them. "Trap," he translated. They went around the flagstone. "Even if you'd made it past the ape-men, you'd have died there," Daniel could not resist pointing out.

"Hey; if it wasn't for me, you'd have died years ago, Poindexter!" Jack snapped. "You really think you're god enough to make it through this?" He demanded. "You really think you're good enough for…" He stopped, confused.

"What?" Daniel demanded.

Jack looked baffled. "I was really about to tell you that you weren't good enough for that psycho-bitch Ayesha," Jack said, with disbelief.

"Makes sense," Daniel said, nodding.

"It does?"

"Yes," Daniel replied. "I mean, when was the last time I called you stupid?"

"Last week," Daniel replied. "When I dropped that urn you were so…"

"All right," Daniel snapped. "But when was the last time I called you stupid and really meant it?"

"Weekend before…"

"Jack!"

"Sorry. This place is getting to me though. It's like I have this burning need to beat you, because I _have_ to win." He grimaced. "Even if I don't actually want the prize. I haven't felt like this since…There was this one time, when I was younger, I got into a fight with this other kid over a girl. Only thing was, I didn't even _like_ the girl that much; she was just using me to make her boyfriend jealous. But once he'd thrown down, it was like I had to prove the point. Same thing happened a couple of years later, and I walked away, but then…"

Daniel nodded. "Testosterone poisoning," he said, sagely. "Testosterone is the mind-killer. The little death that leads to total obliteration. It must be the Tomb; at this range even normal humans are affected, and it's messing with our hormone levels. Our resistance is probably still down from whatever other drugs she's using on us as well."

"You don't think…?" Jack began.

"What?"

"You don't think those guys out there were other champions once? We're not going to turn into cave men? Again."

"Speak for yourself. For what it's worth, I doubt it," he promised. "We're more likely to turn into…overgrown teenagers."

"Good God, no!"

"Not that the difference will be so telling in some people," Daniel muttered.

"Hey!" Jack called after him.

*

"They are doing well," Ayesha said. "Your Daniel seems especially astute," she told Nefera. "While Jack is deliciously brutal."

Sam scowled, but Ayesha had ordered her to be silent a short time ago, and the injunction still held her. In the pool, she saw her friends bickering and sniping at each other. Periodically they would catch themselves doing it and stop, but then they would simply begin again. Part of her hated to watch this because her friends were suffering, while another part hated it because they were suffering for someone else's sake and not for hers.

A commotion from the throne room distracted Sam, and one of Ayesha's guards plunged through into the antechamber, falling flat on his face as he did so.

"How dare you?" Ayesha demanded, standing and turning in a graceful, fluid motion. She flexed her left hand, sheathed in its ribbon device.

"Please, Mistress, I bring urgent news."

Ayesha paused for a moment, and when the guard did not continue, snapped: "Well? Be swift, mortal; our patience is limited."

"Great Mistress,  O She-Who-Is-Obeyed…"

"I said be swift," Ayesha purred.

"Forgive…There is a man of the Amahagger beyond the gates," the guard said. "A madman. He speaks out against you, calling you a false goddess and a pretender."

"And why is he not dead?" Ayesha asked.

"Because…He is your former champion, Mistress. He is Hasdrucar, chosen by She-Who-Is-Obeyed, and forever inviolate."

Ayesha gave a grunt of frustration, and stamped her foot like an angry child. The guard cried out once, as his collarbone shattered beneath Ayesha's heel, but her second stamp snapped his neck, and he was silent.

"Haven't you ever heard that it's wrong to shoot the messenger?" Nefera asked.

The blow which Ayesha struck the Ashrak was not like the others. This was no playful slap, but a full-blooded, backhand punch, which sent Nefera crashing into the wall with bone-shattering force. Sam winced in sympathy.

Ayesha turned to Sam. "If you have any affection for your companion; teach her some manners while I am gone. Neither of you may leave this room," she added, then turned and swept majestically out.

As soon as she was out of sight, Sam slumped, feeling a great pressure lift from her limbs. She sprang to her feet, and ran to the door, but found it blocked by some unseen force.

"Damnit!" Sam screamed.

"Mistress," Nefera called, softly, pushing herself slowly to her feet.

"That bitch has trapped us in here with a forcefield."

"It's not a forcefield," Nefera told her. "It's just her will. We can't leave the room because she told us not to."

"How can she do this to us?" Sam demanded, not entirely sure if she meant herself and Nefera, or just the royal 'us'.

"Something to do with the Tomb," Nefera supposed. "Clearly its power is somehow channelled through her."

"Hence her eyes burn all the time," Sam agreed.

"And she is _so_ strong," Nefera added.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked, concern for the other woman gaining her a temporary advantage over her Goa'uld-self.

"I know how to take a tumble," Nefera assured her. "I'm not saying I'm exactly fighting fit, but I'll recover. I think I'm healing faster than normal," she added.

"Probably another side-effect of the Tomb," Sam said. "But that's good, surely."

"Not necessarily," Nefera replied. "If it works for me, it probably works twice as much for Ayesha, who's channelling the concentrated power of the Tomb through the naquadah in her blood. Even if I'd been able to shoot her in the dining hall, it might not have killed her."

"And why didn't you shoot her?" Sam demanded, harshly. "Even if it didn't kill her it might have given us an edge."

"I tried," Nefera said. "But I couldn't pull the trigger. Her will protects her…"

"As an assassin, you're not much good, are you?"

Nefera dropped her gaze to her feet, then knelt in front of Sam. "Forgive me," she begged, grabbing Sam's hand and pressing it to her head.

Sam leaped back as if burned, although Nefera's gesture gave her a pleasant feeling of power. "Stop that!" She insisted. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you, but…"

" _I'm_ sorry," Nefera replied. "You're not exactly seeing me at my best," she added, in a quavering voice.

 _She's afraid of me_ , Sam realised. _She's a seven hundred year old assassin, and she's afraid of me._ Once more, this thought caused conflicting feelings of nausea and triumph. "How can you do it?" Sam asked. "How can you take this kind of crap? From me or from her?"

"It's what I was taught," Nefera replied. "It's how I've lived most of my life. It was only when I began masquerading as a human on Earth that anyone treated me with any kind of respect." She gave a nervous laugh. "The last thing a Goa'uld wants is an uppity assassin deciding she doesn't want to obey him anymore."

Sam was not sure what to say. On the one hand, she could not feel too much sympathy for an Ashrak; on the other, she disliked being a source of this kind of fear. "You just stood there and let me punch you in the face. I shot you, and you did nothing."

"To resist your chastisement would show disrespect for my Mistress," Nefera explained, as though quoting from a training manual. "To show pain, fear or any other weakness before your foes would be to dishonour my Mistress."

"What about smart-mouthing the sociopathic bitch?" Sam had to ask.

"Goa'uld are like hyenas," Nefera said. "They attack the weak. She wants to single one of us out for the greater share of her abuse, and I'm making sure that's me."

"Why?"

"Because I am thine Ashrak."

Sam sat down on the couch, brooding. The idea of having someone prepared to die at her slightest command was disturbing to say the least.

"What's that?" Nefera asked.

Sam looked down, and saw that she had been toying with a pendant that hung around her neck. "Oh, this? It's the naquadah pendant Daniel found in the Curran collection. Sometimes these things turn out to be keys, and…" She sighed. "Okay; so I'm not allowed to wear my dog-tags for unauthorised invasions, and I'm kind of used to the weight."

"I know what you mean," Nefera said. "You shouldn't let Ayesha see that though. It's an image of Sothis," she explained, prompted by the raising of Sam's eyebrow. "Ayesha might well carry a grudge."

"After all this time?"

"Goa'uld feuds tend towards the epic," Nefera told her.

Sam nodded, and tucked the amulet away.

"Did anyone else see you carrying that?" Nefera asked.

"I don't think so," Sam replied. "Although to be honest, I…"

She broke off as the curtain was pushed aside, and a woman came in. She was in middle age, her face aged by sun and sorrow, with long white streaks in her black hair. She gasped, and recoiled from the body of the guard, but swallowed hard and came over to bow before Sam.

"Mistress Major Carter," she greeted her.

"Who are you?" Sam demanded, with an unintended edge to her voice.

"Nayasa," the woman replied. "The Touched."

"Touched?"

Nayasa nodded. "I bear the mark of Asar," she explained, tilting forward and parting her dark hair, so that Sam could make out the pale impression of a hand upon her scalp, from which her white hair grew. "And my head is filled with knowledge unlearned."

"Human genetic memory," Sam realised, awed.

"Your friend, Teal'c sent me. I have come to take you from here," Nayasa said, urgently. "She will return soon; we must go."

"We can not," Nefera told her.

"We can't pass the door," Sam added.

Nayasa's face fell. "But this is terrible! What should I do? I promised to help you, but I must leave quickly. The Touched are not permitted into the city," she explained. "The guards will not stop me, but there shall be trouble if I am caught by She. My boy…poor Harruna."

"You are Harruna's mother?" Sam asked.

"I am. He brought Teal'c to us for help."

"Go now," Sam instructed. "Have you any way to contact Teal'c."

"He gave me this," Nayasa replied, holding up a field radio.

Sam snatched the device from Nayasa's hand. "Thank you, Nayasa," she said. Nayasa dithered. "It's alright," Sam assured her. "I was going to give you a message for Teal'c, but now I can contact him myself. You go back now, and don't trouble yourself about me."

"Yes, Mistress Major Carter," Nayasa replied, obviously still concerned.

"You have done me a great service," Sam assured her. "You and your son. He is a brave and cunning boy; you should be proud of him."

Nayasa beamed, and it was clear that she _was_ proud of her son.

*

Creeping across the rocks towards the mines, Teal'c was startled by a squawk from his field radio.

"Teal'c. Come in, Teal'c."

"Major Carter; it is good to hear your voice. I apologise for shooting at you."

"I apologise for hitting you," Sam assured him. "Look, your message got here, but we can't leave the room we're in so long as Ayesha is alive; the Tomb gives her too much power. What are you up to?"

"Harruna and I are attempting to gain access to the testing ground through the mines, in order to assist Daniel Jackson and Colonel O'Neill."

"Be careful. The Tomb's influence seems to be pretty strong down there. Also, she has a device for watching what goes on in her realm. Stay about ten yards from Colonel O'Neill and Daniel and you should be out of the shot."

"I will endeavour to do so," Teal'c agreed. Thank you Major Carter."

"Be careful down there. There's traps and other such fun; and a tribe of Neanderthals to boot."

"I will take every precaution."

"And Teal'c," Sam added. "Look after Harruna."

"I shall," Teal'c assured her.

"Carter out."

 

"She really asked about me?" Harruna couldn't quite believe it. "She asked you to look after me?"

"She did," Teal'c replied, giving the reverent youth a look of considerable concern. "Major Carter is a woman of exceptional courage and strength, but she is not a goddess," he said. As they entered the caves, Teal'c took out his flashlight, left-handed, resting his staff weapon across his forearm.

"I…I know that," Harruna said, but without great conviction.

"Why are you so determined to help her?" Teal'c asked. He did not like to look a gift horse in the mouth, but he was even less keen to work with a person whose motives were unsound. If Harruna was looking for a goddess, there was a high risk that he would betray them to Ayesha; who would be more than happy to play that role.

"There is a legend, of Ayesha's arrival in the valley," Harruna explained. "It is said that she came with others, one of whom was Amenartas, the priestess of Sothis." As he spoke that name, Harruna's voice dropped to a whisper. "Mother told me the story when I was a child, of how Ayesha turned on her own, and slew them, and only Amenartas remained to flee across the lands of the Vulture tribe, who still venerate an image of Sothis in secret, praying for her to come and challenge her enemy again.

"When I beheld the Mistress, and I saw that she carried the sign of Sothis about her neck, I thought that she must be Amenartas. I feared that Ayesha would strike her down again, but she seemed so strong, and I came to hope that she might defeat Ayesha, and avenge my father's humiliation."

"Major Carter is not Amenartas," Teal'c told Harruna.

"I know this now," Harruna replied. "But still…"

"But still?"

"Is she not the most captivating woman in all the world?" Harruna asked, breathlessly. "When she is nearby, I can hardly think straight. Truly, Teal'c, I have never seen such beauty."

Teal'c shook his head, sadly.

"You need not worry," Harruna said. "I understand that I have no chance with someone like that. But just to see her smile…"

Teal'c suddenly raised his staff weapon.

"No!" Harruna cried, throwing out his hands to protect himself, but Teal'c did not fire. The flashlight beam shone past Harruna's shoulder, and a commotion erupted behind him. He turned, and saw a group of the Morlocks retreating into the shadows, frightened by the light.

"Who are they?" Teal'c asked.

"They are the ghosts of Kôr," Harruna whispered, terrified. "The spirits of those who have died down here, forced to serve as guardians of the catacombs for all eternity. But why are they so far out?"

"These are no ghosts," Teal'c said. "They are flesh and blood. Look." He pointed to a pale shape lying very still on the ground. Harruna gasped. Teal'c took the boy's arm, and drew him away from the Morlocks. Warily, the pale creatures came down from their hiding places, and gathered around their fallen comrade. Then, in deep, sombre voices, they began to sing.

Whether there were words to the song that Teal'c did not understand, or whether it was a form of tonal chant, Teal'c was never able to say. Whatever the meaning of their dirge, something in the mournful voices of the ape-people of Kôr moved Teal'c, and after a few minutes, he joined his voice to theirs, taking his tune from them, and adding the words of a traditional Chulakan threnody for a fallen warrior.

He completed about seven rounds – perhaps a total of thirty minutes – of the song, before the Morlocks began to move. One by one, each took up a large rock from the floor of the mine, and laid it on top of the body, forming a low cairn. When the cairn was complete, each Morlock laid a final stone in a ring around the base, before fading back into the darkness, still chanting. Finally, when only two remained – an elderly male and a younger female – the male beckoned to Teal'c, and gestured at the cairn.

Reverently, Teal'c lifted a stone, and set it at the base of the cairn. The elder nodded his approval, and Teal'c stepped back. As the elder began to lift his own tribute, Teal'c touched the awe-struck Harruna on the arm, and led him away from the scene. He glanced back once, to see the female stand alone, laying a final stone atop the cairn. She looked up as they left, her huge eyes seeming to rest on Harruna for a long time, before she followed her people and vanished into the shadows.

"They say that the ghosts eat human flesh," Harruna said. "They say that they spare none whom they can catch. You must be…"

"I am no god," Teal'c told Harruna, firmly. "But Daniel Jackson has always told me that almost any confrontation can be resolved peacefully if you attempt to understand it from the perspective of your antagonists. We interrupted a funeral, and invaded their burial grounds." He gestured around them, and Harruna noticed for the first time that they were surrounded by dozens of the low cairn mounds. "By showing respect for their dead, I hope that I convinced them that we meant them no harm or disrespect."

"He must be a wise man, Daniel Jackson," Harruna said.

"The wisest that I know," Teal'c agreed.

*

"You…snob!" Daniel accused.

"Me? You're the snob, Mr. 'I've got a doctorate, I'm better than you'."

"Two doctorates," Daniel snorted, angrily. "And like you don't look down on me because I'm a civilian."

"Hey; I try damn hard to put up with you. I've defended you!"

"Oh, yeah: 'It's not his fault, he's just a civilian'; 'oh, don't mind Daniel, he's not used to the military life'."

"When did I ever say that?"

"You… _looked_ it!"

"What?!"

*

Hasdrucar stood amid a growing crowd of Amahagger. He had been denouncing Ayesha's tyrannous rule all the way from his home, gathering a crowd, first of Hawks, then of Vipers, and adding a number of curious Wolves before reaching the territory of the Goat tribe on the lower slopes of the Kôr Mountain. Now he stood at the foot of the great bridge, addressing a crowd of maybe seventy-or-eighty Amahagger of at least those four tribes. Of course, he could not be sure of their affiliation, but from the sound he could guess at the numbers.

"All of the Amahagger are slaves!" He cried. "We fight one another, saying 'we are strongest, no other shall rule us', but obey She without question!"

"She has the power to destroy us all," one of the crowd called out. "She is a goddess, far beyond us. She has always ruled the Amahagger."

"No, she has not," Hasdrucar replied. "Nor does she know all of the secrets of the Mountain. She is an interloper here, stealing the power created by _our_ ancestors!"

"What power did our ancestors have?" One of the Goats asked.

"The power of life and death itself," Hasdrucar told them. "Listen," he began, but they never got a chance. At that moment, a flash of energy struck the blind man in the back. It exploded from his shoulder, the force of the staff blast twisting his body around, and toppling him unceremoniously from the bridge.

 

 _If you want something done properly_ , Ayesha thought to herself, as she handed the staff weapon back to the guard at the palace entrance. The man looked appalled, clearly wrestling with the cognitive dissonance caused by seeing She destroy a man protected by her own decree.

"Nooo!"

Ayesha turned at the cry of desperate pain, and saw a woman hurtling towards her with a knife in her hand. With lazy grace Ayesha snapped out a foot at the crazed woman's throat. Her attacker stopped dead, all momentum sapped by the sheer force of Ayesha's blow. She croaked and gasped, trying to force enough breath through her pulverised windpipe to form words. Ayesha reached out, caught the woman by the hair, and sent her flying with a flick of her wrist.

The would-be assassin whirled away like a top, and stepped into the open air beside the bridge. Without even the breath to scream, she fell in eerie silence, piebald hair flying out above her. She struck the mountainside with a horrid, soft crunch, then bounced and slid to rest, leaving a grisly trail behind her.

Ayesha sighed, contentedly. It had been such a long time since she had been given a chance to do anything so satisfying.

 

Below, the crowd began to mutter, horrified by what they had just seen.

"Yes, white hair," one woman, from the Wolf tribe, whispered. "I saw it too."

A man of the Goat tribe nodded. "She was Touched; one of the chosen of Asar."

"She should not have killed one of the Touched," a young Viper opined, and there was an angry murmur of agreement.

 

Ayesha heard the buzz of discontent, and it enraged her, quite spoiling her good mood. She pursed her lips, and turned to the guard, who looked even more appalled now. "Tell the crowd to go home, and forget the lies that they have heard here," she told him. Orders would help him to forget the contradiction.

"Yes, Mistress," the guard said, sounding shaken.

"If any remain when the sun is at its zenith, kill them. Then return them to their villages, have them identified, and burn down their homes, with their families inside."

"Mistress…?"

"If anyone raises a hand to stop you," Ayesha went on, furious that even her soldiers seemed to be answering back today. "You will burn down their entire village, and shoot anyone who attempts to leave. When this is done, you will organise a search, and put every single one of the Touched to death," she added. The guard blanched.

She turned and looked down on the crowd, which was beginning to turn nasty. "We do not need to tell you to shoot anyone who speaks against us when you seek to disperse the crowd, do we?"

"No, Mistress."

"Good. Then carry on."

She watched as the guard led eight of his fellows down the bridge, but turned away and stalked indoors before they reached the bottom. Ordinarily, she would have welcomed a chance to watch her warriors brutalise the tribesfolk, but their defiance was making her feel ill, and she was in no mood for light entertainment.

_*_

Sam paced up and down, distractedly.

"Mistress!" Nefera gasped. The Ashrak was staring into the pool, so Sam moved over and joined her.

Jack and Daniel had arrived in a truly massive chamber, most of which had no floor. Instead, a vast abyss gaped beneath a narrow bridge of rock. There was no barrier or parapet on the bridge, only a simple beam of stone, maybe nine feet across. Sam felt a wave of nauseous vertigo just seeing it in the pool. It was not this however that had alarmed Nefera. Rather, it was the sight of Daniel letting Jack draw slightly ahead, then leaping on his back with a scream of incoherent rage. Jack cried out in alarm, but flipped Daniel easily over his shoulder.

"Well; things have become more interesting."

Sam and Nefera turned in surprise, not having heard Ayesha enter. "Stop them?" Sam pleaded.

Ayesha smiled, indulgently. "We think not. We find that this level of competition shows the proper spirit for the future host of Asar, don't you? Besides, are you not proud of your champion?"

Sam turned back to the pool, and saw that Jack was proving to be the stronger of the two. No surprise there; Sam knew that Jack was a better hand fighter than she, while she was far stronger than Daniel. The archaeologist's technique was good, and he was almost unrecognisable as the combat novice who had first joined the Stargate programme, but his approach to battlefield martial arts was pretty much the same as his attitude to firearms training; it had simply never been a priority, and now he was suffering for that. At least neither of them had drawn their knife yet.

"He _is_ strong," Ayesha commended Sam. "A superb choice."

Sam felt a glow of pride, but her heart was in anguish, knowing that one of her three best friends in the world was about to kill one of the others.

*

"What's the matter, Danny? Not enjoying your workout?"

"You arrogant son of a bitch," Daniel gasped, wiping blood from his mouth. "If you kill me, I'm going to die enjoying the knowledge that the next trap is going to send you to join me."

"Yeah?" Jack retorted. "Great. Then I can carry on beating the crap out of you in hell!"

They were out on the bridge now, Jack forcing Daniel to the retreat, and trying to crowd him over to one side of the narrow stone path. He was pushing him towards the right – well, Jack's right – where the stone seemed smoother than on the opposite edge, and Daniel was not sure he could keep his footing if he went too far out.

Daniel froze in fear as a terrible wail filled his ears. At first he thought he must have taken a worse blow to the side of the head than he had realised, but then he saw that Jack was looking uncertainly in the direction of the noise. It was coming from the darkness to Daniel's left, somewhere below them, in the abyss. Daniel's eyes widened, as he realised what the sound was. He had heard something like it once before, during a dig in the canyon-city of Petra.

"What the hell is…?" Jack began, as Daniel threw himself down and hugged the stone.

A gust of wind, funnelled through some shadow-hidden channel, ripped out of the darkness and tore across the bridge. Grit lashed at Jack's face, making his skin sting and his eyes water. He wrapped his hands around his head, and leaned against the wind to keep from being knocked off the bridge.

As suddenly as it had come, the wind stopped, and Jack overbalanced. With some difficulty, he kept his feet on the stone where the wind had worn it smooth down through the centuries, but then Daniel charged him and knocked him head-over-heels backwards. Jack rolled, and tried to come back to his feet, but there was suddenly nothing to stand on, and he fell, barely catching himself on the edge of the bridge. Luckily, Daniel's rush had carried him away from the windward edge, and the rough surface of the stone gave him plenty of purchase.

Unfortunately, Daniel was now standing over him, and lifting his foot to stamp down on Jack's fingers.

*

Ayesha clapped her hands, and laughed in almost girlish delight – a terrifying sound when superposed with the Goa'uld's sonorous undertones. "We may have underestimated Daniel Jackson," she admitted. "It seems that he is not without his ruthless side."

Sam struggled with the forces tearing at her will: The Goa'uld instincts in her blood; Ayesha's imposed authority; and the terrible pain of watching her friends fight. Finally, she could stand it no longer, and lacking any constructive options, she could only give vent to her frustration.

"No!" She screamed, as Daniel raised his foot.

And Daniel looked up at her.

 _He can hear me_ , Sam realised. "Daniel, don't…!" She began, before Ayesha's hand struck her to the ground.

"Mistress!" Nefera called, alarmed.

" _Silence_!" Ayesha commanded, harshly. Nefera struggled, but was unable to resist the compulsion. "And you," she hissed, turning her burning glower on Sam. "Will suffer for your impudence." She held out her right hand – surprising Sam, who had expected her to use the ribbon device – and gave a brief, sinuous gesture. "Major Samantha Carter," she whispered, her voice ice cold yet deeply intimate, her lips twisting into a smile of sweet malevolence. "Hear our command: Pain!"

For a moment, Sam wondered what Ayesha was trying to do, but then her body was wracked with pain. She felt as though her muscles were trying to pull her bones in all directions at once, twisting her body and tearing her flesh from within. She screamed aloud, and her back arched in agony.

Nefera's hand trembled, as it began to move ever so slowly towards the belt of her robe.

"Watch the pool," Ayesha whispered, without turning, and Nefera was forced to turn from the sight of Sam's suffering, with pain in her own eyes.

*

Daniel stepped back from the brink, with Sam's voice ringing in his ears. "Jack. Did you hear…?"

"Sam," Jack replied, still hanging by one arm from the bridge. "I thought I did."

The wind howled, deep in the abyss, and above it Daniel heard another sound: Sam, screaming in pain.

"Ah…Daniel?"

Shaking himself out of his confusion, Daniel reached down. Jack swung his free arm up for Daniel to grab, and with a joint effort, Jack was hauled to safety. Of course, safety was a relative term in Asar's testing grounds, and the two of them were forced to press against the stone in the face of another terrible blast of grit-bearing wind.

"Oh god," Daniel whispered, as the wind died away. "I can still hear her screaming."

"Do you think there's a way up?" Jack asked.

"I don't know," Daniel replied, petulantly. "She's the one who'd know. Sam."

"Do you think they can hear us?"

"Over that?" Daniel scoffed.

Jack bristled at his superior tone. "Hey! You want me to put you down again?" He asked.

"Who put who down?" Daniel demanded, feeling his adrenaline rising again. He shook his head to try and clear it.

*

Sam slumped to the floor of Ayesha's antechamber, breathing hard. Her whole body ached, and her throat was raw. She was fairly certain that she had felt worse, but not often or recently.

"What…?" She gasped.

"We did nothing to you," Ayesha assured her, sounding short of breath herself. Sam raised her eyes to look at the Goa'uld, and realised that it was not exertion making Ayesha breathless; it was excitement. "You did it to yourself. Do you understand now the true extent of our power?"

"Yes," Sam replied. Ayesha raised her hand in threat. "Yes…Mistress," she whispered. _I will take that power from you_ , she promised, silently. _Then we'll see how strong you really are._

"Good. Your companion may have a loose tongue, but she was quicker than you to learn the correct form of address."

Sam tried to clear her head. She was fairly certain that when Nefera called out 'Mistress', it had been to her, not to Ayesha, but despite the vicious leanings welling up in her, she felt no need to give their sadistic captor any greater excuse to torment the Ashrak.

"No," Nefera moaned, leaning over the pool and reaching her hand towards the water.

" _Keep back_!" Ayesha ordered, causing the younger Goa'uld to spring away from the pool so fast that she tripped on the couch and fell hard on her back. Sam was surprised to see such awkwardness from the woman, but Ayesha smiled, amused, as she moved to the pool. "Ah," she said. "It seems that the balance has tipped again," she said. "Once and for all."

A chill ran up Sam's spine, and she struggled to rise. Nefera scrambled quickly to her feet, and helped Sam up, half-carrying her to the couch. Sam's gut tied into a knot inside her.

In the viewing pool, Jack stood on the bridge. Daniel lay still. Very still.

"God, no," Sam whispered.

Ayesha frowned. "A curious weakness, to care so much for a slave," she said. Then she smiled, and Sam knew from the overwhelming joy that she radiated, that someone was about to suffer. "We suppose that we need only one hostage now."

*

Hasdrucar drifted back to consciousness with small, nimble hands touching his wound.

"Who's there?" He demanded, reaching out. His hand found an arm, and followed it to a shoulder, and then to a face. A girl, he thought; young, and frightened. "Who are you? What are you doing?"

"I am Sayaka, of the Vulture tribe," she replied, in a whisper. "I am binding your wound. We must be quiet. The warriors of She have ordered everyone to go home, but my father Matayu asked that I stay and help you if I could. He asked me because I'm sneaky," she added, proudly.

"Matayu?" Hasdrucar asked, in a soft voice. "Matayu with the scar on his face?"

"That is correct. You know him?"

"I gave him that scar," Hasdrucar said. "I defeated him in combat to earn the right to be Ayesha's champion. I thought for certain that She would have had him killed after I defeated him."

"He lived but was thought dead," Sayaka explained, tying off his bandage. "They left him on the mountainside but he had the strength to crawl to shelter."

"And he asked you to aid me? Then perhaps I have reached a few people after all."

"It was her," Sayaka said. "We were all so shocked when She struck you down, her chosen; and then when She killed the Touched…"

Hasdrucar's heart sank, and he felt as though the world was falling away around him. "The Touched?" He asked, his voice thick with emotion.

The girl explained to Hasdrucar what had happened, but he hardly heard. He already knew that it was Nayasa who had attacked Ayesha, and that she was dead, but even hearing Sayaka's small, sad voice confirming it, did not seem to make it feel real. He could simply not believe that she was gone; Nayasa, the light of his shadow-life. He felt hollow, as though everything that made him a man – that made him more than a mere shell of flesh and bone – had been ripped out of him.

"Where?" He asked, desolate.

"She is nearer to the base of the mountain," Sayaka replied.

"Take me there."

"But, Sir; she is…"

"She is my wife!" He hissed, voice cracking with grief.

"It is…it is this way," Sayaka told him, taking him by the hand.

 

Most of the Amahagger who had listened to Hasdrucar speak had retreated to the Wolf tribe's village when the guards dispersed them. They had no wish to invite She's wrath when she was so obviously enraged, and so despite their anger over the death of one of Asar's Touched they had melted away from the bridge.

"It is not right," a passionate young Viper hunter named Terrua was saying. He was the first to have voiced the opinion that even She should not have killed one of the Touched, and he was setting his spear, as the saying went.

"She is a goddess," Kara of the Wolf tribe insisted. She had not gone to listen to the madman, although her daughter, Nema had, in defiance of parental edict. "She is above our law."

"Not that law," Nema replied. A timid young woman by nature, she had returned from the mountain with a new fire in her eyes. "Aren't we taught that Asar is the highest law? And did not Asar himself command that the Touched never be harmed, nor molested?"

"Even so," Eymar – a Hawk – interjected. "She is divine, and we could not bring her to justice, even if we had the right."

"We have both the right and the power."

They all turned, and they saw Hasdrucar. Despite the wound in his shoulder, he held the limp and bloody corpse of his wife cradled in his arms. She was almost unrecognisable for the damage that had been done to her, but plain for all to see were the streaks of white – now half-stained red – in her black hair. Sayaka stood at the blind man's side, holding his tunic to guide him.

"This was not just one of the Touched," Hasdrucar said. "Her name was Nayasa. She was my wife, and the mother of my son. You should all know that before I say anything more, because I want you to know that this _is_ personal for me now.

"Twenty years ago, I and Matayu of the Vulture tribe were chosen to compete for the right to be Ayesha's champion."

"You must not speak the name of She!" Kara gasped.

"She is no goddess," Hasdrucar said. "After I was chosen, Ayesha kept me with her for a time; for her entertainment. In that time, I saw something. I saw her cut her hand, and bleed."

The assembled listeners gasped in amazement.

"She is strong," Hasdrucar admitted. "But she is mortal. And she is fallible. Ask Matayu, whose death she ordered."

"What would you have us do then?" Eymar demanded.

Hasdrucar fixed the man with his scorched and sightless eyes, and answered in a low, deadly hiss: "Destroy her."

*

Harruna led Teal'c into the mines, until they came to a narrow crack in the rock.

"This is where my father came out of the testing ground and into the mines; he was found wandering at the mouth of the mines by the Goat tribe. After I found my way back to my real parents, father told me to find my way around the mines, but I have never been deep enough to come here before."

"If your father was blind, how did he find his way out of the testing ground?" Teal'c asked.

Harruna shrugged. "That I do not know. He says that someone showed him the way, but he was blind and delirious and does not know who."

Harruna slipped nimbly through the crack, and Teal'c followed. The heavy-set Jaffa found the passage rather more problematic than the youth did, but with a little twisting and straining, he forced his body through. He held up his flashlight and shone it around the room in which he found himself.

"Welcome to the catacombs of Kôr," Harruna said.

"Who were these?" Teal'c asked, casting the flashlight beam up and down the long gallery, illuminating a row of recumbent bodies, one after another. They lay peacefully, their dark-skinned faces in perfect and natural repose, eyes closed as though in sleep, but from the stillness of the air, Teal'c knew that they were dead. Each wore a white funeral robe, with necklaces of beads around their necks and golden bangles on their arms.

"These are the Royal Dead of Kôr," Harruna said.

Teal'c examined the nearest body, that of a handsome, regal-looking woman in advanced middle-age. "These were here before Asar?" He asked.

"So we believe," Harruna replied. "We do not know for certain."

Teal'c nodded, slowly. It was hard to believe that the body before him could have been dead for more than a few hours. There was no sign of decay, no tissue desiccation or collecting of blood at the back of the neck. Moreover, the woman was of apparently African descent, her skin as dark as Teal'c's own. Teal'c wondered at this, aware that an ancient culture in this part of the world should have been fairer-skinned.

"Do you know how to find the testing area?" Harruna asked.

"We follow the greater path," Harruna replied. "My father followed the larger path as he travelled, until he met the man who guided him out. If we always take the widest way, we should be on the right track."

Teal'c nodded, although doubtful. He was well aware that he had few better ideas.

"We must be careful," Harruna added. "There are traps."

With this in mind, the two of them left the long gallery of the dead, and entered a broad passageway, lined with ancient relief carvings. The floor of the passage was lined with flagstones, some of which were ever so slightly recessed. Teal'c pressed one of these with the butt of his staff, and a burst of flame leaped out from a vent in the wall.

At the first junction, they passed straight over the narrower crossing passage, then took a left, still following the wider way. After about three hundred yards, the left-hand wall of the passage disappeared.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Teal'c admitted.

They moved closer and Teal'c shone the torch into the void. Clearly, this passage had inadvertently been constructed over a void in the rock; a chasm carved by the underground river which they could hear rushing through the darkness below them. At some point – perhaps millennia after the passage was cut – a huge mass of rock, including the side of the passage, has slipped and collapsed into the chasm. From the edge of the remaining floor, a mass of rubble sloped sharply away towards the river.

"Stay close to the wall," Teal'c cautioned.

"Father never mentioned this," Harruna said.

"Let us hope that this has happened since he was here," Teal'c said. "Since we have no option but to go on."

Harruna nodded, and they pressed themselves close to the right wall, shuffling cautiously along. Teal'c reached the far side of the gap safely, noting that another of the trigger stones had almost fallen with the rest of the floor. He turned to shine the light at the narrow ledge for Harruna's benefit, and as he did so he saw the boy's foot slip.

Part of the flagstone on which Harruna was standing crumbled, and he began to overbalance towards the abyss. In desperation, he threw himself forwards, landing on the edge of the breach; right on the trigger stone. Teal'c reached out to push Harruna aside, but even as he did so, the flame burst erupted from the wall, catching him square in the face.

Teal'c staggered backwards, clutching at his eyes. He felt his elbow strike Harruna, and heard the boy cry out, before he tripped on the edge of the trigger stone, and toppled backwards, his head striking hard against the passage wall. Bright light exploded before Teal'c's eyes, and he lay quite still.

*

Sam and Nefera stood, silent, while the implications of Ayesha's words sunk in.

"You wouldn't dare, _breeder_ ," Sam hissed.

Ayesha's eyes narrowed. "Wouldn't I?" She retorted, in a deadly whisper.

"Sam," Nefera cautioned.

Sam was surprised to hear the Ashrak use her given name, and even more surprised by the genuine vulnerability in her voice. She might have been moved by that tone, but that part of her was taking a back seat, as the Goa'uld arrogance boiled up inside her.

"Snivelling weakling!" Sam snapped, rounding on her Ashrak. "If you weren't so pathetic, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Nefera's concern was writ large on her face, but then it vanished, replaced by cold, hard rage. "Fool!" She snarled. "You can not even discipline your own tongue; how could you hope to control me? You are unworthy to have ever carried a symbiote."

Ayesha laughed in cold delight as Sam strained to raise her fist against Nefera. "Excellent," she purred. "Let us see which of you is truly the stronger."

She waved her hand, and suddenly Sam was free. She threw a punch at Nefera, but the Ashrak met her halfway with a fierce shoulder-charge, lifting her up and slamming her into the wall. Sam struck out at her opponent with crazed strength, adrenaline driving her through the ache in her bones and the pain as Nefera returned her attacks, blow-for-blow.

Ayesha sat on her couch, watching her enemies battle tooth-and-nail to destroy each other, and smiled to herself.

Sam charged Nefera, all but consumed by her anger, and the Ashrak moved aside, turning Sam's momentum so that she toppled to the ground, striking against something soft. She half-turned, and saw that what she had struck was the body of the murdered guard. With a wave of nausea, her humanity reasserted itself for a moment, and she leaped away from the corpse in horror.

She turned back to Nefera, and saw the other woman reaching under her belt. Sam hesitated before she attacked again; only for a moment, but it was enough. Nefera raised her hand, the slender metal coils of the hara-kash wrapped around her fingers. Sam froze in terror, remembering Jolinar's fear as the Ashrak threatened her in the cell at the SGC.

Ayesha smiled in satisfaction as the light from the Ashrak's weapon illuminated Sam's skull through the flesh of her face. Sam's limbs went limp, and she fell, dead upon the floor.

_*_

Hasdrucar sat vigil over his wife's body, waiting. After a short time, Sayaka brought him food, but he only ate so as not to disappoint the girl. She took the dish away when he was done, then returned to sit by his side. She probably thought that he did not know she had returned, and since he was touched by her gesture, he did not embarrass her.

"Hasdrucar?"

Hasdrucar turned his head towards the voice. "Matayu," he greeted his former rival. "Who is that with you?"

"Terrua the Viper, and Nema the Wolf," Matayu said. "They want to speak with you."

"Let them speak," Hasdrucar replied.

"We want to know if you have a plan," Nema said.

"I have told you what I want to do."

"Yes," Terrua agreed. "But not how." His voice came from very close to Nema's, his tone protective.

Hasdrucar turned back to his vigil with a nostalgic smile. _Ah to be young and in love_ , he thought, lightly brushing his hand against Nayasa's cheek. "You want to know if I plan to lead you on a doomed march along the bridge," he said. "Is that correct?"

"Yes," Nema replied. "What you said…We believe you. We want to keep believing you, and if you have a plan to bring down Sh…Ayesha, then we are with you. Terrua has a great deal of respect among the Vipers, and I can call on the regard which the Wolf had for my father before he died."

"We can persuade a great many people to follow you," Terrua continued. "Or to denounce you. We don't want to lead our people to their deaths," he explained.

Hasdrucar nodded. "Either way, many will die," he warned.

"Then let us say that we will not lead them to a useless death," Nema said.

"I would not ask it," Hasdrucar agreed. "I have a plan. There are passages under the mountain, through the mine. We shall not have to climb the bridge in the face of her guards' flame spears, but it will not be easy."

"We do not ask for it to be easy," Nema assured him. "Only that it be possible."

"Will the elders come?" Terrua asked. "Will they bring their forces?"

"They will come," Hasdrucar said. "But whether they can be persuaded to aid us…That will depend on you, Nema."

"On me?"

Hasdrucar smiled at the mixture of pride and fear in the girl's voice. She was brave, but not foolish. "They must hear one of the Touched speak of the past," he said. "And you know the Touched of the Wolf tribe. I need you to find me one who knows the legends of Kôr."

"But the Touched are all but mute!" Matayu said. "Hasdrucar, how can the Touched persuade anyone?"

"They have knowledge, Matayu the Vulture," Hasdrucar said. "There is more to them than most of us can dream, and they will be the downfall of Ayesha."

"I hope you are right, blind man," Matayu said.

"Could we succeed without the support of the elders?" Terrua asked. "If there is even a chance…"

"There is a chance," Hasdrucar said. "But not a good one. If we can not persuade the elders to send their warriors, then we should make no move. Perhaps when you are older…"

"When we are older, we might be as fearful as our parents," Terrua replied.

Hasdrucar smiled again. The boy was hot-tempered, but there was strength and wisdom there. "You might be right," he admitted, sadly. "Although I am loath to rob our people of the children you and Nema could bear." He chuckled when Nema gasped in astonishment. "I am blind, child," he assured her. "But some things do not have to be seen to be known. Find me one who knows the legends," he told her again. "And we shall have strength enough for the task."

 

*

 

"Give me the hara-kash," Ayesha ordered. Nefera barely hesitated. "So," Ayesha said. "An Ashrak; how fascinating." She grasped the torch-lever, and the hidden door slid open. "Throw them in," she ordered, gesturing at both Sam and the guard.

"Yes, Mistress," Nefera said. She hefted the dead guard, and cast him into the darkness, hearing his body roll down the stone stairway. Once the sound had died away, she turned and lifted Sam. "What will happen to them?" She asked.

"The ape-creatures will eat them," Ayesha replied, airily.

Nefera hesitated. "She was…my Mistress," she said. "It does not seem right to hurl her away like carrion. May I carry her down?" She asked.

"She _is_ carrion," Ayesha told her. "Throw her down."

"Yes, Mistress." Nefera bore Sam's body over to the opening. "Forgive me," she whispered, gently kissing Sam's forehead. Then she crouched, and gently allowed the body to roll from her arms and down the stairs. "Farewell."

Ayesha struck Nefera a violent, backhand blow to the side of her head, sending her sprawling. "You are weak," she declared, again.

"I am sorry, Mistress," she said. "But I was her Ashrak."

"And yet you killed her."

Nefera hung her head, ashamed. "I could not fight your power," she murmured. "I am thine Ashrak now."

Ayesha laughed, cruelly. "After what became of your last mistress, we do not think that we shall trust you yet. We may yet find a use for you however. Meanwhile, sit, and watch the rest of the trials."

 

*

 

Sam's body rolled down the stairs, gathering speed, and fetched up against the guard's corpse. There they lay, in a grotesque parody of intimate repose, until the first of the Morlocks emerged from the shadows.

His name was Benak.

This pale, heavy-set man approached the strangers, cautiously. In the dim light of the torches, his sensitive eyes could make out the two forms lying at the foot of the stairs. His tribe knew well that the people who came down those stairs from above were of two kinds: Those who walked, carrying glittering death in their hands, such as those who came before and killed his sister's husband; and those who were dead. With thick fingers he touched the throats of these two, to make certain that they were of the second type.

Turning to the younger foragers, Benak beckoned them forwards, and directed two to carry each of the dead strangers. They lifted them, carefully, and he led them back into the shadows.

 

Sam stirred and woke, with a clear head and a gnawing hunger in her stomach. Somewhere to the left of her, deep voices were chanting in some unknown language. She sat up, trying to remember where she was, and found no clues in the darkness that surrounded her. All she could see were numerous dark mounds, and a group of pale figures who seemed to be the source of the chanting. She struggled to her feet, wondering how she came to be here. The last she remembered was the Ashrak…

"She killed me," Sam said aloud.

The chanting faltered, and Sam sensed that some of the pale figures had turned towards her. She could not make much of a guess as to whether this was a bad thing or not. Rough voices began to speak in whispers.

"Hi," Sam said, causing the pale figures to fall silent. "Do you know…"

Suddenly, the darkness around her seemed to lessen, as a reddish glow fell upon the ground from behind her, casting her shadow towards the cluster of Morlocks, who cringed away from the torchlight.

"Sam."

Sam turned in alarm, and saw that the torch was carried by none other than Daniel Jackson. "Daniel," she gasped. "Aren't you…"

"Dead? No."

"Then…I'm not either?" She asked, hopefully.

"I had my doubts," Daniel admitted. "But it seems not."

"What are these creatures?" Sam asked, indicating the Morlocks, who were gazing at her in undisguised horror.

"Some kind of Neanderthal, I think," Daniel replied. "I've been calling them Morlocks."

"How did I get here?"

"They found you at the bottom of the stairs, and I followed them here. I thought that they might be bringing you to eat, but it looks as thought they were going to bury you. What happened to you?" As he spoke, Daniel took Sam by the elbow, and began to lead her away to the right of the Morlocks.

"Nefera…killed me, I think. With her hara-kash."

"You look very healthy for it."

"I feel good," Sam agreed. "But also very hungry."

"Ahh," Daniel said. "I think I see what happened. Why did Nefera 'kill' you?"

Sam thought back. "It's hazy. The Goa'uld instincts were running the show at that point, but I think Ayesha decided that – since you were dead – she only needed one hostage. Nefera decided that should be her," she finished, bitterly.

"No," Daniel insisted, as they circled around the Morlocks and began to back away from them. "She didn't try to kill you; she put you in a regenerative trance. That's why you're so hungry."

Sam nodded. "It might explain why I'm not in complete agony anymore," she admitted.

"She must have figured you would be safer away from Ayesha."

"That explains me then; what about you?"

"When we heard you call out, Jack and I figured that you must be able to see us. Jack pretended to kill me so that I could sneak back and try to find a way to help you."

"Well, it nearly got me killed," Sam told him. "But thanks."

Daniel shrugged. "We also felt it was best we get away from each other before we really did try to kill each other. Again," he added.

"Are they going to attack us?" Sam asked, gesturing at the Morlocks.

"I don't think so. They're afraid of light and fire, and they seem convinced that you're a ghost."

"Okay then. Let's review. What are our assets?"

"Our brains, your fighting skills, one knife, a torch, and a Shol'va's salute that Nefera slipped inside my shirt."

"Is _that_ what she was doing?" Sam teased.

Daniel blushed. "I think I can see how to fire the thing, but I don't know how many shots it has."

"Probably not many," Sam said. "It's not a battlefield weapon. Okay; what are our liabilities?"

"We don't really know where we are, and we're surrounded by an unknown number of Morlocks. If we get out of these caves, we still need to get through the palace to attack Ayesha, and you'd probably just turn on me if she told you to, and we can't communicate with Jack or Teal'c."

"Oh!" Sam cried. "We can contact Teal'c; I clean forgot in all the being dead, but Harruna's mother brought us a field radio."

"Then that adds to our assets," Daniel said.

Benak watched the two strangers, curiously. All his life, he had been taught that all walking strangers brought the glittering death to harm his people. But the man had been in their territory twice, had yet to draw the glittering death from his belt, and had twice prevented his comrade attacking Benak's people. The woman was even more of a mystery. She had come here dead and now walked. The two of them stood close together now, making strange sounds to one another.

"Where do we go now?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Daniel admitted. "But maybe…" He took a step towards the Morlocks, who stepped back, all save a large male. "Fire," he said, pointing to the torch. "Above." He held the torch aloft. "Sun." The leader frowned, and Daniel tried a few other words. "Ra. Atthar."

"Atthar!" Benak was taken aback. The stranger knew the tribe's name for the burning light of the world outside.

"Atthar?" Sam asked.

"Pre-Islamic solar goddess," Daniel replied. "I was trying to find something that they would associate with the sun." He turned back to the Morlocks. "Atthar?" He asked, pointing in the direction he and Sam had been going.

Benak frowned again. "Atthar," he said, pointing in the opposite direction.

"Atthar," Daniel replied, beginning to move in the direction the leader had indicated. "This way to the sun," he told Sam.

"Unless 'Atthar' is Morlock for 'where's the bathroom'," Sam said.

Daniel frowned, but was pleased to hear Sam sounding a little like herself again. "Baraka," he said, bowing to the leader.

"Bakhar," Benak responded, again startled. He turned and watched the strangers leave with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it gladdened his heart to see goodness where he had thought there was only evil; on the other, he felt in his bones that the world had become a more complicated place, and he did not know what that might mean to his people.

 

"I'd guess that they were once enslaved," Daniel explained. "Either by the people of Kôr, or by the Goa'uld. Their language has developed away from its origins, but a few words must have survived intact in both their language and those outside. It's something similar to the pidgin language the Amahagger developed."

"That's great, Daniel," Sam said. "Although it doesn't really mean a lot to me."

"Too much detail?"

"Don't worry about it," Sam assured him. "We wouldn't have you any other way." She reached into her robe, and pulled out the small field radio. "These things get good mileage," she said, pleased to see that it had held up well as she rolled down the stone stairs. She raised the unit to her mouth and spoke: "Come in Teal'c."

 

*

 

Teal'c stirred, a pounding pain in his head.

His radio squawked again. "Teal'c; come in."

"Major Carter," Teal'c said, his voice slurred.

"Teal'c. Come in, damnit!"

Teal'c took the radio from his jacket and spoke into it. "I am here, Major Carter. I am in the catacombs, but we have run into difficulty with some manner of trap. On my way in through the mine, I encountered the tribe that you spoke of, conducting a funeral, but they were not hostile."

There was a pause before Sam spoke again. "That's great. We just met them, I think. They took me for dead and were having one of those funerals for me. Luckily they realised their mistake in time. Daniel reckons we must be in the same part of the mine you saw them in, which means we should be able to reach the surface pretty quickly.

"We're going to try and get back into the city," Sam went on. "I need to eat something soon, and then we need to do something about Ayesha." Another pause. "Daniel reckons we should strike for the Shrine of Asar; there might be another entrance to the end of the testing ground. You should keep going; try and find Jack, help him out, and be ready to support us when he gets through."

"I shall do my best," Teal'c said, flicking his torch on and off. "But it may be difficult."

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, concerned.

"It would seem that I am blind," Teal'c said.

*

Cautiously, Jack entered another of the seemingly endless parade of long galleries standing between him and the grand prize in Asar's little fun house.

"Oo-kay," he said to himself. "Looks pretty safe, which probably means it's not."

Treading carefully, Jack began to make his way to the far door. He was about halfway there when the trap was sprung. He was testing every slab before putting his weight on it, but the trigger stone turned out to be too stiff for anything but his full bodyweight to depress it. As soon as he felt the stone shift, Jack leaped forward, landing in a roll, and coming to his feet some fifteen feet behind the trigger. He half-turned, and felt a moment of admiration for Asar's design work, as a spear sailed from a hidden shaft, aimed at a point some fifteen feet behind the trigger.

Still off-balance, Jack was forced to dive awkwardly to the side, and his hip struck hard against the stone, driving the sheathed knife hard against his pelvis. He cried out in pain, but at least the spear missed his body, and glanced harmlessly off the stone.

With considerable discomfort, Jack forced himself to his feet, and began limping towards the exit. After a moment he stopped, picked up the spear and used it as a crutch.

 

"He may not have the mind your champion had," Ayesha told Nefera. "But he is resourceful and ingenious."

"He's great," Nefera agreed, without enthusiasm.

"You are not entertained by his efforts?"

"Oh, yeah. This is better than American Gladiators."

"He will make a truly excellent host," Ayesha continued, the nearest she was likely to come to expressing any actual admiration for a human.

"Yeah," Nefera said, distractedly.

"Come now," Ayesha chided. "You can't still be mourning the loss of your champion? He was impressive and attractive, but he was only human."

"You have no concept of what he was," Nefera whispered, bitterly.

Ayesha's face contorted with rage, but Nefera was spared another harsh chastisement as the Queen's attention was drawn back to the pool. Jack was crawling along the floor of another gallery, beneath a cloud of thick, noxious-looking gas. He stumbled clear of the room, his eyes streaming with tears.

"He is doing well," Ayesha noted. "Very few of our champions have managed to come so far."

Nefera pressed her eyes tightly closed, refusing to allow She the satisfaction of her tears.

*

Nema came to where Hasdrucar and Sayaka sat their lonely vigil. The girl now held the blind man by the hand, having appointed herself his custodian. "They are here," she told him.

"Yes," Hasdrucar said. "I have heard them arguing. I suppose we had better begin, before blood is spilled."

Sayaka stood and helped Hasdrucar to his feet.

"Thank you, child," he said. "You should find your father now. He may need to get you away from here quickly."

"I'll stay," she said, simply.

"Thank you," he said again. "Nema; is our speaker ready?"

"She is," Nema replied. "Her name is Katraya, and she will speak when you ask it."

"Very well."

Sayaka led Hasdrucar out to the meeting place, at the centre of the Wolf village. He recognised the voice of Ahmay, raised in anger at some perceived slight, and Matane trying to calm his father. The other elders he did not know so well, but their type he was more than familiar with. Those of the other tribes were unhappy with meeting in the Wolf village, and all had some axe to grind against their neighbours. Territorial disputes, accusations of trespass, assassination and abduction flew around the meeting place, and Hasdrucar could sense the impending violence.

"Honoured elders," he called, but he was completely ignored. He tried again, louder, but with equally little success. "Well, this is starting well," he muttered to himself.

From his left came a shrill whistle, that cut through the noise like a knife. His ears rang with the sound of it, but it seemed to have shut everyone else up for a moment as well. "Sorry," Terrua said.

"Quite alright," Hasdrucar assured the young man. He took a step forward, and began. "Honoured elders; and everyone else. You were told that you were gathered here at the command of She. This was a lie."

"Blasphemy!" Ahmay cried.

"Well, yes," Hasdrucar agreed. "But just wait, O Mighty Ahmay, stealer of children; because it gets even better." Ahmay spluttered in rage, but Matane calmed him again.

"You have been brought here to judge a wrong," Hasdrucar said. "One of Asar's Touched was murdered today, and you have been asked to pass sentence on her killer."

"The only sentence is death!" One of the elders called.

"Heya the Viper," Terrua told Hasdrucar.

"Do all concur?" Another voice – a woman – asked. There was a murmur of agreement. "It is a simple case; why call a meeting of the elders?"

"That is Sharala the Vulture," Sayaka whispered.

 Hasdrucar ruffled the girl's hair in thanks. "I have called you here, because the killer is named Ayesha." An angry rumble began around the meeting place. "In front of witnesses, She-Who-Is-Obeyed cast Nayasa the Touched from the top of the Bridge of Kôr, to her death. If all are in agreement, then the sentence of death is passed, and can not be revoked."

"You certainly have nerve, blind man," Nema whispered.

"This is preposterous!" Ahmay shouted. "We can not sit in judgement of She."

"We must," Hasdrucar insisted. "She has violated the law of Asar."

"She is not subject to the laws of Asar."

"All are subject to that law," Terrua told him.

Hasdrucar wished that the boy had kept silent; now he had chained his own fate to this cause, as surely as Hasdrucar himself had done.

"Not She," Sharala replied.

"Even She," Hasdrucar insisted. "Katraya?"

There was a hubbub as the Touched got to her feet and stepped forward.

"Katraya," Hasdrucar went on. "Will you tell the elders the story of Kôr?"

"What is this madness?" Heya asked. "The Touched can barely speak."

"I speak," Katraya said. She sounded about the same age as Nayasa, and Hasdrucar could not help but picture his wife as he listened to her. "And I remember."

Again there was a commotion among the elders, unused to hearing anything from the Touched. Ordinarily they would merely pass silently among the villagers, passing on their unlearned knowledge through example. It was only when she fell in love with him that Nayasa had taught Hasdrucar how much more the Touched were capable of.

"I remember the tales of Kôr-that-was," Katraya said, speaking clearly and calmly over the noise. Her voice was powerful, and as she spoke, the crowd fell into silence. "When a mighty race came from the South; a great people who ruled over many lands, and of whom we are the descendents. They raised the city of Kôr to be their greatest triumph, and for many centuries it stood as such, before the coming of the Serpent Gods. Over time that people in the south grew idle and decadent. One by one their lands and cities fell to internal strife, or to assault by lesser races, tired of their harsh rule, until only Kôr remained of that once-great empire. Kôr was preserved from that fall by the mountains that surrounded it, and by the virtue that lay within the rocks, while all else perished, and fell into ruin.

"Then it was that the Serpent Gods came, in ships of steel, bearing weapons of fire. With the empire in tatters, the people of this world fell swiftly before the might of these Gods; all save the people of Kôr, who held out for many years. The army of Kôr was strong and proud, the last bastion of imperial might, and when the Serpents came, they were driven back.

"But then Asar came. Asar the Great, the Dark God. He came with his armies, but toppled the gates of Kôr with a whisper. He poured honeyed words in the ear of Nyam, the last King of Kôr, offering him power beyond his reckoning if he would trust in Asar, and so Kôr fell. Asar turned on this greedy King, and claimed the power of Kôr for himself. At the last, Nyam confronted the Dark God, and the people were told that he had been cast down, but in time it became clear that Nyam had become Asar, and the Dark God's banner soon flew above the palace.

"For many centuries the Dark God ruled, and under his banner the Amahagger lived in peace. Then he left us, but before he went, he laid his hand upon certain servants, and imbued them with his knowledge, that they might guide the people whom he left behind. And he commanded that when one should bear the mark of his touch, none should raise a hand to them, not even one of his own brethren."

The muttering began again, angrier now.

"Yes," Hasdrucar said. "You begin to understand that Ayesha must be punished."

"But how?" Ahmay demanded. "How can men bring a god to justice?"

"In answer," Hasdrucar said. "I must tell you of what I saw when I was Ayesha's champion; and of what the warrior Teal'c has told me of his own past, and the fall of many other Serpent Gods."

_*_

Sam stopped suddenly and looked around her. "This is it," she said. "This is where Harruna brought me up into the temple."

"You're sure?" Daniel asked.

"Almost," Sam replied. "I had an electric torch then; it looked kind of different." She wiped her palms on the sides of her robe. "The passage should be…" She beckoned Daniel closer with the torch.

"You're shaking," Daniel told her.

"It's the cold."

"It's warm," he said.

"Well…Maybe I'm coming down with something. Or it's the hunger."

Daniel sighed. "Sam. It's me."

Sam relented, but not without an internal struggle. "I…It's the Tomb," she admitted, fighting the part of her that railed against revealing any weakness. "It's reacting with the naquadah in my blood, elevating my hormone secretion levels, especially those from the adrenal gland. It's way beyond what's happening to you and Jack, and because I don't have a symbiote to soak up those excess hormones…it's killing me."

"God, Sam…"

"Don't say anything," she said. "There's nothing to say. The physical reaction is probably worse because I'm so hungry, but I think Nefera's healing trance helped balance me out, as well as repairing the damage Ayesha did. But it will get worse again," she told him. "And when it does, I'm going to start acting funny, and speaking Goa'uld. I won't be much fun to be around then."

"Maybe not," Daniel agreed. "But I'll still be here with you, because you'll still be Sam."

Sam flashed Daniel a grateful smile. "Ah-ha!" She said, turning back to the rocks. "It's up that way."

They climbed up to the next gallery, and through several chambers until they reached the well. Sam led, and they ascended into the lower levels of the temple. When they reached the more occupied areas, Sam peered cautiously around the door. There was guard in sight.

"This way," she whispered. Daniel followed her, and she followed her nose right to the kitchens. "Food," she murmured, blissfully.

"Two cooks," Daniel said. "Hey; a man and a woman, both tall. Dinner and disguises; this may be our lucky day."

"And it's not often you can say that on a day we've both been taken for dead," Sam replied.

They crept into the kitchen, Daniel moving towards the male cook – a tall, powerful man, with the petty-baronial demeanour of a head chef – while Sam approached his assistant.

"Excuse me," Daniel said. "But can you tell me: How _do_ you pronounce 'oregano'?"

"Huh?" Said the chef; then Daniel hit him.

The woman began to cry out, but Sam grabbed her around the throat from behind. She hooked one of the woman's legs, shifting her grip to the chin and pressing her other arm at the back of the cook's neck.

"No!" Daniel cried out.

Sam froze, staring at Daniel in rage. "Do you want everyone to know we're here?"

"Sam," Daniel whispered. "Look at what you're doing?"

Sam looked down at the terrified woman – or rather, she realised, girl, for although a little taller than Sam, she could not have been much older than fifteen – and at her hands, positioned to snap that girl's neck like a twig. With a start, she released the headlock, and staggered back.

The girl slumped, conscious and alive, but frightened beyond reason. Daniel knelt in front of her, making soothing sounds as he brushed her hair. He spoke to her for a moment, and she nodded, then moved away along the counter.

"Well," Daniel said. "That was fun."

"Where is she going?" Sam asked.

"She's going to undress her father and herself so that we can disguise ourselves." He spooned thick stew into a bowl. "This looks good," he said. "Must be for Ayesha. Eat."

Sam shook her head, still in a state of shock.

"You have to eat," he insisted.

She took the bowl with trembling hands. "I was going to…"

"Yeah," Daniel agreed. "I don't know what's up with all the neck-snapping suddenly. Jack kept trying to do it earlier."

"I didn't even think," Sam admitted, now tucking into her stew with gusto. "It was as if…"

"Her life meant nothing?" Daniel hazarded.

Sam nodded. "If I'd had a hand device," she said. "I would have killed you for daring to question me. Before I'd even thought about it." She held out the bowl, and Daniel refilled it. "Honestly Daniel, I'm so afraid I can hardly think straight, even when I'm not in Goa'uld bitch-mode."

"You'll be okay," he promised her.

"How can you know that?"

"Because you're Sam Carter," he said. "You're the strong one."

"Daniel…"

"You are," he insisted. "Jack and Teal'c…Well, they'd probably never say it, but they'd agree with me. We've all four of us done good work; great work. But you're something else, Sam."

"Thank you, Daniel," Sam said, setting the bowl aside. "But I'm not sure it's enough. I mean…I feel like I really _am_ something – or someone – else right now." She looked close to tears, and about as vulnerable as Daniel had ever seen her.

Daniel put a hand on her shoulder. "You. Are. Sam. Carter," he promised.

He gave her a friendly hug, but Sam pushed him away. "Don't…Don't touch me," she said.

"Sorry," Daniel said, backing off.

"No, it's just…When I said my hormones were up…"

Daniel blushed. "Oh," he said. "Oh!" He took another step backwards, and almost ran into the girl. She had stripped down to a thin shift, and was holding out two sets of servant's robes. "Thank you," he said, flustered. Then he spoke to her in Goa'uld, and she hurried back to where her father lay, shooting the occasional frightened glance at Sam.

"What did you tell her?" Sam asked.

"That everything would be fine, and she was to stay here and look after her father."

"No," Sam said. "I'm starting to understand Goa'uld again. You threatened her with something."

"No I didn't."

"You threatened her with _me_!" Sam realised. "You said I'd be back to get her if she told the guards."

"I had to do something," Daniel protested, handing Sam the girl's robe. "Now you are going to go into the parlour and change; I'll change out here."

"Out here? In front of her?"

"Don't worry, she won't peek."

"You don't trust me around your nearly naked body?" Sam asked, playfully.

Daniel shivered. "Frankly, no. Not right now."

Sam pouted. "You don't find me attractive?"

"I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole," Daniel assured her. "Go. Change."

*

Teal'c struggled to his feet, and found hands helping him up. His head still felt about two sizes too small for his brain, but he could feel the slight tingle that told him his symbiote was working on the damage. "Harruna?"

"You must go back now."

"We can not go back," Teal'c insisted. "We must assist Colonel O'Neill."

"And how will you do that? You are blind. We must get you to safety yourself."

Teal'c felt around on the ground for his staff weapon, and it was placed in his grasp. "My sight will return," he said. "If you can see than you must lead me."

"I…"

"Can you see?"

"I can."

"Then lead me. We must reach the testing grounds."

"Alright."

 

The sound of Teal'c's footsteps died away, and the broken passage was silent save for a dripping of water and the gentle rush of the river.

And then a new sound came from the opening in the wall.

"Help me," Harruna called. "Please, help me."

*

Jack stepped into the grandest chamber he had yet encountered, a massive, vaulted, subterranean hall. Along the walls were lines of sarcophagi, ten on each side. At the far end of the hall, a door led out from the back of a raised dais, on which stood a larger and grander sarcophagus.

"Well, this looks like fun," Jack said, as he hobbled into the room.

With a sharp clang, a grate dropped over the doorway behind him.

"Okay!" Jack shouted. "I didn't tread on any trigger stone. What the hell did that?"

"This complex was built by Asar," Ayesha's voice answered him, coming from all around. Unlike Sam's screams, which had seemed thin and reedy, Ayesha's words came clear as a bell, reverberating around the hall. "It does not rely on anything so crude as pressure plates."

"Of course not," Jack muttered. He took another step forward, and a grate sealed the far door as well. "Oh, this isn't fair!" He complained.

"You must defeat the guardian, Jack," Ayesha told him. "Or you can not continue."

"So how come you haven't killed this guardian already?" Jack asked. "I thought you completed the trials?"

"I was required to placate the guardians in…other ways," Ayesha replied. "The battle is the test for Asar's host; not his Queen."

"Great. Just great."

With a low, grating rumble, the first sarcophagus opened, the lid folding apart, and the sides lowering to allow the occupant an easy exit. The occupant was a huge man, taller even than Jack, and carrying a huge machete.

"Hello, handsome," Jack said. "You come here often?"

*

Sam and Daniel arrived at the throne room, unmolested. Plainly the disguises were working, even though Daniel's was far too wide around the waist, and Sam's a little snug in places. Sam ducked behind a pillar, and found Nefera's pack.

"Excellent," she said, in a soft whisper, as she armed herself with a zat and hid it under her robe. "Now; where will we find the shrine?"

"I have no idea," Daniel admitted, as they made their way out of the throne room. It was clearly an effort for Sam to turn and walk away from the room where she knew her tormentor to be, but she managed.

"This is not like any Goa'uld temple I've ever seen," Daniel continued. "It looks almost as though the Goa'uld iconography has been added over something older. The architecture is all wrong as well; this wasn't built by anyone working within the conventions of Egyptian or any other Goa'uld-derived architecture."

"Asgard?" Sam asked. "Or maybe Ancient?"

"Possibly Ancient," Daniel agreed. "Or possibly…something older."

"Older?"

"Yes," Daniel said, with mounting excitement. "Something pre-dating any extra-terrestrial intervention on Earth. Do you know what that would mean?"

Sam nodded. "That the Goa'uld didn't raise us out of savagery. That humans developed their own civilisation _before_ the Goa'uld. But the Goa'uld wiped them out," Sam said. "So _our_ civilisation still ultimately descends from them."

"Yeah; but it's nice to know we weren't a total lost cause without them."

"It could just date to Asar's time. Over that kind of time-frame, even the Goa'uld might have changed their design tastes."

"Then why change it?" Daniel asked. "If Ayesha is so keen to raise Asar, she wouldn't want him coming back to find she'd changed the wallpaper and he hated the new design."

Sam shook her head, not prepared to get into a debate on this now. "So if you were a Shrine to Asar…?" She began.

"I don't know," Daniel replied, patiently. "I…uh-oh. Look humble," he warned, as a guard approached along the corridor.

Sam began to cast her eyes downwards, then stopped, and looked straight at the guard. "You!" She called, in Goa'uld. "She-Who-Is-Obeyed demands that the Shrine of Asar is to be made ready for her consort's arrival. You will escort us there, at once."

"Y-yes, Mistress," the guards stammered. He was clearly taken aback, but training and discipline kicked in at the sound of Sam's commanding tones.

"Nice work," Daniel admitted, as the guard led them away.

"I guess there's something to be said for arrogance and impatience after all," Sam replied.

*

"Follow me closely, and do not deviate."

Teal'c paused. The ringing in his head was beginning to clear, and he could hear properly. "You are not Harruna," he said.

"Who is Harruna." Now that he had realised, Teal'c became aware that the voice had little in common with Harruna's. It was a woman's voice, deep, rich and sensual; he had only assumed it to be Harruna's voce because he was disoriented, and expecting Harruna.

"My companion. Where is he?"

"I do not know," she replied. "You were alone in the passage when I found you. I came when I sensed the fire."

"Who are you?" Teal'c asked.

"That question has little meaning," she told him. "Now place your hand on my shoulder if you desire to go on. We are passing through the Hall of the Abyss now, and the path is narrow. When you hear the wind howl you must press yourself to the stone."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because you have come so far that you have no choice," she answered. "It would be as certain a death to return unguided as it would be to go on."

Teal'c nodded, accepting her logic, and reached out. She took his hand between soft, strong fingers, and placed it on her shoulder. She was tall, Teal'c realised. Almost as tall as he was. She led him forward, slowly, and although unable to see, he became acutely aware that there was a great gulf to either side of him.

Suddenly, a hideous wail filled the air, and Teal'c knew that this was the howl that his guide had warned of. He threw himself to the floor, driving her down beneath him, and wrapping an arm around to cushion her fall as much as possible. He struck hard against the stone, scraping the skin of his arms as he tried to keep his weight from crushing the woman. Then the wind rolled over him with a ghastly cry.

*

Jack swung the broken spear in a huge arc, catching the punch-drunk warrior on the chin and sending him crashing to the floor. Jack stood over the prone guardian, and walloped him twice over the back of the head for good measure.

"That's…for breaking my spear," he gasped.

He moved towards the dais, but the grate remained closed.

A second sarcophagus began to open.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Jack shouted at the ceiling. Then he leaned down and picked up his fallen foe's machete.

*

The guard led Sam and Daniel from the temple into the open air, only for Daniel to realise that it was not a temple at all, merely a palace and residential complex. The mountain, it seemed, was a long-dormant volcano, and in the cone of that volcano, the people of Kôr had raised their true temple.

"Wow," Sam whispered, awestruck. "Even after all I've seen, there's something impressive about that."

Daniel stood, enraptured by the mighty edifice of stone. The temple stood almost seventy feet high, at the centre of the crater. It was roughly pyramidal in shape, but built in three 'steps', each with a broad walkway around the base of the next tier. At the corners were four massive obelisks, and where a flight of stone stairs led up to the entrance at the second tier, four carved stone dogs stood watch.

" _We_ built this," Daniel breathed. "That's what's different. This wasn't raised by the Goa'uld as a landing platform; it wasn't carved by Ancients or basted from the rock by Asgard lasers. This was built by humans, alone."

"How can you tell," Sam asked.

"I just…know," Daniel told her. "I _feel_ it."

"Aray kree," the guard said, turning back to face them with suspicion on his face. He levelled his staff weapon, too fast for Sam to draw her zat, but Daniel shot him with the Shol'va's Salute.

Sam looked impressed. "Nice shot," she said.

"Thanks."

"Let's move."

Between them, they scooped up the guard and dragged him inside.

 

From the entrance, a short passage led to an antechamber, where a winding stair took them down to a chthonic shrine. A statue of Asar – a vaguely humanoid figure wound through by a great symbiote – dominated the chamber, but the walls were covered in a script that was not of Goa'uld origin.

"I know this," Daniel said. "This script, it's similar to early writings in the Nile and Rift Valleys, but so much more sophisticated. It's a form that predates conventional hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts in the Nile region, but never developed…Unless," he realised. "Unless it didn't develop because it was already dying out when the Goa'uld came. It wasn't an early writing system at all, but a well-developed one, with a full alphabet, formal spelling and grammar, that the Goa'uld annihilated to perpetuate the myth of their utter dominion."

"Why would an African script turn up in an Afghan temple?" Sam asked.

"Because it's the wrong way around!" Daniel cried, gripping her by the shoulders. "Don't you see, it's inverted. The legend of Solomon's Mines; they got it the wrong way around. It was Africa; an advanced civilisation on the Rift Valley, founding  mining colony in the Middle East."

"That's…great," Sam said. "But could you let go of me, please."

"Sorry." Daniel released her shoulders.

"Don't worry. It's entirely my problem," Sam assured him. "Speaking of which, let's get into this Tomb." She went over to the statue and began poking around.

"What are you looking for?" Daniel asked.

"The entrance to the crypt," she said. "There must be a switch or a trigger. Don't just stand around gawping at the walls," she snapped. "Help me find it."

"Hey!" Daniel bridled. "You're not my boss."

"Actually, with Jack out of the picture for the moment, I am," Sam reminded him, sharply.

Daniel looked as though she had slapped him in the face. While it was true that – for reasons of grading and chain of command – he bore the notional rank of lieutenant to her very real majority, she had _never_ pulled rank on him before. She had never had to, and if she had not been being so belligerent she would not have had to do so now. "Sam…" He began.

"Daniel," she pleaded. "I'm not myself, and I'm _dying_. Help me, please. Just look for a clue, or a pointer or something."

"I don't know this language," Daniel protested. "I think it might be related to Enochian…"

"To what?"

"A hermetic script," he explained. "Supposedly the language of the Angels. The trouble is that all vaguely modern forms of Enochian are pseudo-cabbalistic twaddle, starting with Dee in the 16th century, and this predates that by a factor of at least twenty."

"Daniel!"

Daniel swallowed his objections, appalled at the state Sam had been reduced to; alternately threatening and pleading. To see her this way, so weak and vulnerable, made him feel sick to his stomach. "I'll see what I can find," he promised.

*

Harruna lay at the bottom of the chasm, wondering what it would feel like to die. If Ayesha was no goddess, then all of his people's beliefs were suspect. There would be no spirit of light come to lift him from his body and carry him to paradise. Was there an afterlife at all? Did everything just end?

After a while, Harruna began to be able to make out the rocks around him, and he realised that there was a very dim light coming from the walls. They seemed to glow with a pale blue radiance, almost undetectable, save when everything else was so dark. He shifted his position slightly, because his feet were in the river, and beginning to become numb from the coldness of the water. As he moved, he felt a pain in his side, and cried out.

The world spun into blackness and back again.

*

"Follow precisely," Teal'c's guide cautioned again. "We are entering a series of traps. One misstep and you shall be dead."

"If I am entrusting my life to you, I should like to know your name," Teal'c said.

"As I told you, it is not important," she replied.

"Is there nothing that I can call you?"

"Perhaps…" She sounded thoughtful. "Call me…Ner'auc."

"You are Jaffa?" He asked, uncertainly. He could sense no symbiote in her.

"No, but it is apt."

"Ner'auc," Teal'c said. It was the feminine form of a Jaffa word, meaning 'Forgotten'. "I find it hard to believe that anyone could forgot you," he told her.

"You are kind," she replied. "But time sweeps all before it, and all things fade away. And how are you called?"

"I am called Teal'c."

"And that also is fitting," she said. "Although I sense that there is far more to you than mere strength, Teal'c."

Teal'c smiled, but then remembered his purpose. "Ner'auc; can you tell me what O'Neill will be required to do in these tests?"

"I do not know precisely," she replied. "But after he has passed the traps, he will have to fight a battle that he can not win, before the hardest trial of all, where he shall face those enemies that he brought here with him."

"How soon will he fight this battle."

"He fights it now, but you can not help him there."

"I must try."

"You can not. If you come there, he will fail."

"What about the other," Teal'c said, deciding he would have to trust to O'Neill's considerable strength. "Can I help him with that."

"Yes," Ner'auc replied. "Perhaps, but it will not be easy to take you there, and you will face many dangers once you arrive. Your life will be in as great a peril as O'Neill's.

"He would do as much for me," Teal'c insisted.

"Then you are both blessed," Ner'auc said, and Teal'c thought that there might be a wistful smile on her face. "However, if you would reach him in time, then you must do something that you may find very hard."

"What must I do."

"You must trust me."

_*_

With a fierce slash of his machete, Jack put down his second opponent. He looked up to the grate, and it remained closed. Two more sarcophagi opened, and two more warriors – a man and a woman – stepped out.

"No, no, no!" He screamed.

"Come now, Jack. You have fought well. No one has ever come so far before. Most are slain by the first guardian."

Jack did a quick recount of the sarcophagi and did the math. "No," he said, as the two warriors stepped towards him. He cast the machete aside, and stood, waiting.

"No!" Ayesha screamed, the sound ringing in his ears. "No, you can not do this! You can not surrender! I forbid it! I command you to fight, and win!"

"Not going to happen!" Jack called back. "Come on then," he told the warriors. "Do your worst."

With a great scraping sound, all of the remaining sarcophagi opened.

*

Daniel studied the snippets of Egyptian-based symbolism in the shrine, but they were scattered, and mostly appeared to be fairly standard devotional prayers.

"God! What's taking you so long?" Sam demanded. "When it comes to activating hidden traps and mind swap devices, you can't find the buttons fast enough, but when it's my life at stake…"

"Please, Sam," Daniel replied, calmly. "This isn't easy and you're not helping."

"Do not speak to me that way, slave!" Sam snarled. "Or your screams shall be our music."

Although he was sick with worry, Daniel threw his hands up in frustration. "Look," he said. "If there's a secret passage, it isn't signed, which – if you think about it – makes a certain amount of sense. I hoped Asar might have left something, since he's so keen on trials and riddles, but there's nothing, just a series of devotional prayers about kissing the feet of the Dark God…" He paused. "Who guards the paths of the underworld, that's it!"

He leaped up, and ran to the statue. "Alright," he said. "'Kiss the left foot, then the right foot'."

"Are you telling me to kiss the statue?" Sam asked, recalcitrant.

"Just thinking out loud," Daniel assured her, pressing down on the statue's feet, one at a time.

The wall behind the statue melted away, flowing into its frame in the same way as a Jaffa's battle-helmet flowed into its collar. Behind it was a flight of stone steps, leading down.

Sam cried out in delight, caught Daniel's face between her hands and tried to kiss him.

"Uh-uh!" Daniel cautioned, stepping away. "Focus, Sam."

"You're right. Sorry," Sam said, chastened for the moment.

Daniel smiled, wryly. "It's okay, Sam. I know I can't help being this adorable."

Sam grinned, and it was _almost_ the same old smile; just a lot more fragile.

"It's almost over," he promised her. "This should be it; the Tomb of Asar."

*

"I have already trusted you," Teal'c assured Ner'auc.

"You must trust me more," she assured him. "I must carry you by paths that man was not meant to travel. There, only I will stand between you and total obliteration, and if you do not trust me entirely, if you struggle or resist, or try to break away from me, we shall both be lost. Do you understand."

"I do," Teal'c replied. Ner'auc was right of course, it was a tremendous thing for him to trust anyone. His own mother had lied to him about Apophis' divinity; after that it came hard to trust anyone.

"So can you do it, Teal'c?" Ner'auc asked. "Can you trust me that far."

Teal'c did not hesitate. To save O'Neill – or any of his friends – he would put his life in the hands of Apophis himself if need be. "I can," he said.

"Then kneel down," she told him. He did so, and felt her wrap him in a cloak of some light fabric. Her embrace was cool, but he felt safe and sheltered in her arms. "Hold tightly too me," she instructed, and he did. The feel of her beneath her thin robe confirmed what his voice suggested, that Ner'auc was a young woman.

Her arms tightened about him, and Teal'c felt the world fall away from him.

*

Sixteen warriors – nine men and seven women – climbed from their sarcophagi and stood, forming a line on each side of the gallery. Ayesha's voice still rang in Jack's ears, but he was ignoring her for now. After a long, pregnant silence, the larger sarcophagus on the dais began to open, and Jack – trying to swallow – found that his throat was dry.

From the sarcophagus stepped a woman, slightly shorter than most of her followers, but with a majesty and dignity that left no doubt that she was the leader. She was dressed in the same manner as her cohorts, in all save a few respects. She wore a ribbon device on her left hand, and a sword at her right hip, and a pendant in the shape of a leaf or a narrow spearhead hung around her neck. She had ebony skin and long, black hair, and if the image of Ayesha were not so strong in his mind, Jack felt sure he would have found her beautiful.

"Hello," he said.

"Greetings, Jack O'Neill," the Goa'uld said, in a weary voice.

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage," Jack admitted. "What with you speaking my language, knowing my name and outnumbering me seventeen to one."

"We learn much in our dreams," she told him. "We see so very many things from here. We hear the world as it breaths, and watch the butterfly that makes the storm."

"Butterfly?" Jack was completely lost.

"You know," she said. "The butterfly effect? A butterfly flaps its wings in China…"

"And it causes a storm in central park," Jack finished. "Yeah, I've heard of it."

"It reminds us of you," she said. "Of you and Daniel Jackson. Two lost souls, one misguided mission; and the universe shakes to its very foundation."

"You…know about the Abydos mission."

She smiled. "I am Neith, daughter of Asar," she said. "And I know everything."

"Everything, huh."

"Everything. For this is the navel of the world, and here I dream."

"I? It was we a minute ago."

"I. We. We get confused. In our dreams we are all people, and hence all knowledge falls to me. All that occurs in this world, I know, for all deeds accomplished on this planet are done by my hands. It's a rush."

"Huh?"

"Ask Daniel Jackson about the omphalos later," Neith said. "If you survive. It does my head in trying to explain it."

"So what happens now?" Jack asked.

"You pass beyond this chamber," Neith told him. "You have successfully negotiated the Hall of Surrender, by accepting the inevitable with dignity you have proven worthy."

"What!" Ayesha's voice cried, enraged.

"Oh, shut up!" Neith bellowed back. "She does go on," she told Jack.

"The way you talk…" he began.

"I am a part of all dreams," Neith told him. "And people don't dream in bad medieval diction. Well…a few of them do, but I don't like to judge." She lifted the pendant from around her neck, and held it out to Jack. "This is the key to my father's sepulchre; you have earned it."

"So that's it? Trials done?"

"Sorry, Jack; there's one more to go. You've got the key, but you still need to win access to the lock."

"Uh-huh. I don't suppose you can tell me how I do that?"

"That isn't how this works I'm afraid," Neith told him.

"You don't want to spoil the surprise."

Neith smiled, sadly. "I am an obedient daughter, Jack."

"That's sweet."

"I can tell you that someone up there wishes you dead," she told him.

"Who?"

"Beats us," Neith replied. "We've been wracking my brains for the past few hours trying to work out which of the things we remember doing we did as you. I'm afraid details like individual identity get garbled when you remember as many concurrent lives as I do."

"You seem strangely sympathetic for a Goa'uld," Jack noted.

"Everything you have suffered, I have suffered," Neith told him. "Not even the sarcophagus can take away that level of empathy."

Jack nodded his understanding, partial though it was. "Well; thank you, Neith," he said. "It's been nice meeting you, and I hope we get the chance to do this again."

Neith smiled at him, as she hung the pendant around his neck. "I don't think it's very likely," she said. She kissed him gently on the cheek. "Good luck with everything; and whatever happens, don't feel bad for us."

"What do you mean?"

"You will know when the time comes," she said. "Now you should get along. "Everything is waiting on you, and time is running short."

Feeling an ominous chill at her words, Jack turned and headed up the stairs. At the top, he passed through a small doorway, and the world went black.

 

In the Hall of Surrender, one of Neith's followers approached her. "Madame," he said. "Should we return to our rest now."

"No," Neith replied. "Let's wait; see how he does. I think this one might just make it."

"So many have tried," the man noted. "Is this one so different."

"He is. We have felt it in our dreams. Place the fallen in their sarcophagi, and rouse them when they are restored. We think that all our number should be awake."

"As you wish, Madame."

The man moved away, and a warrior woman took his place. She was the youngest of those chosen for the vigil by her father. When Neith touched her dreams, they retained a moving innocence, even after so many thousands of years in the sarcophagus.

"Madame," the woman asked. "What will happen if he succeeds?"

Neith smiled, beatifically. "We will die," she replied.

*

Daniel might have favoured caution when descending into the Tomb of a legendary Goa'uld progenitor, but Sam bounded ahead of him, drawn like a moth to the flame. Despite the very real danger to Sam, his other friends, and even himself, Daniel could not help but feel a thrill of anticipation, although his excitement had a very different cause to Sam's. His heart in his mouth, Daniel found himself holding his breath, and counting the steps to what might just be the oldest place of worship ever constructed by human hands.

"This is incredible," he whispered, as he stepped into the Crypt of Asar.

The chamber was small by the standards of Kôr, perhaps thirty foot square and ten feet floor-to-ceiling. The walls of this chamber were covered in worn carvings, dense lines of text, in a script unlike anything Daniel had ever seen. In the centre was a great cylinder, clearly of Goa'uld construction, built upon an older pedestal. There were other Goa'uld artefacts around the chamber, including at least one naquadah generator, and a number of control panels. A second large cylinder was set against the right wall. At the far wall was a great, arched doorway; the carvings on the arch looked ominous, even without being able to read them, and the portal itself exuded a sense of brooding menace.

"This is it," Sam whispered, walking around the central cylinder, brushing her fingers along its surface as if afraid to touch it any more than that. "This is where the power comes from."

"No," Daniel said. "I don't think it does. This chamber predates even the city above. If it does anything, then that _collects_ the power, whatever its source." He joined Sam, and read an inscription on the front of the cylinder: "The Flame of Eternity."

"Open it," Sam commanded.

"Sam…"

"Open it for me, Daniel," she pleaded. "If I can just get inside…"

"I can't," he admitted. "Look." He pointed to an indentation in the front of the cylinder. "There's a key, and we don't have it. It looks like it would be a lotus pendant; almost certainly the one that Ayesha wears."

"What about this one," she asked, indicating the second cylinder. A control console sat in front of it, and it bore no label, but it was otherwise almost identical to the first.

"Same thing," Daniel said, leaning the guard's staff weapon against the Flame cylinder before moving to examine the second. "But a different key."

"A spearhead?"

"More likely a lettuce," Daniel said. "The Egyptian lettuce was a symbol of masculine potence and virility, as the lotus could represent female sexuality."

"His and hers Flames of Eternity?" Sam asked.

"Maybe not. If this is what the male champion finds the key to open…"

"Then maybe it contains…Asar," Sam breathed. Pressing reverently against the cool, smooth surface. Her hands dropped to the controls.

"What are you doing?" Daniel asked.

Sam made no response, but after a moment, the front of the cylinder melted away, revealing a second wall of glass, or some similarly transparent material. The tank was filled with a viscous, yellowish liquid, and within the liquid a Goa'uld floated, although not quite like any other Goa'uld he had seen.

"Oh," Daniel said.

This Goa'uld was almost six feet long.

*

Jack tripped and stumbled. "Damnit!" He hissed. Around him, the darkness was oppressive. The door seemed to have vanished completely behind him, and to make matters worse he could hear a rustling, whispering sound.

"What is it?" A voice hissed.

"Whose there?" Jack demanded.

"We are Kallikrates," the voice answered.

"You're dead," Jack accused.

"All here are dead," another voice whispered, this one soft and honey-sweet.

Jack jumped around, trying to peer through the gloom as he recognised the sultry tones. "Hathor!"

"The one and only," she affirmed. "Whose light you took from an unhappy universe."

"Yeah, right. What are you doing here?"

Hathor laughed, seductively. "You brought me, Jack; don't you know that."

"Come now, Jack," another sibilant voice joined in. "Do you think you could ever be rid of those you have slaughtered?"

"Who…?"

"We are gods," Kallikrates declared. "We are forever."

The third voice laughed, and despite the sibilance, Jack recognised the sound with something halfway between horror and delight. "You know me then?"

"Astarte."

"Yes, Jack. Please don't tell me you thought for a moment that I would leave you."

"But how?"

"This is the place of the dead," she told him. "Where you must answer for your sins before those you wronged by them."

"Oh, damn." Jack started to run, desperate to get out, to get anywhere but here, but he could not find a way. Wherever he went, and for however long he travelled, he never seemed to move away from the whispers.

"Colonel!"

Jack's head whipped around. "Kawalsky?"

"Damn it, Jack," Major Charles Kawalsky said. "What the hell did you let that Jaffa kill me for?"

"There was a Goa'uld in your head," Jack said. "We couldn't get it out. What were we supposed to do?"

"You took me out," Astarte told him.

"We hadn't met the Tok'ra yet," Jack told Kawalsky, pleading for understanding. "I didn't know there was another way. We tried everything…"

There was no reply. "Kawalsky!" Jack called. "Charlie!" The moment he spoke his old friend's name, he knew it was a mistake. "No!" He cried. "No, not you, please…!"

"Dad? What's wrong, Dad?"

"Oh God, Charlie," Jack whispered, his voice cracking with emotion at the sound of his son's voice.

"What happened, Dad?" Charlie asked. "Why is it so dark? Where did you and Mom go?"

"We didn't…We…"

"Is Mom here?" Charlie asked.

Tears ran freely down Jack's cheeks. "Charlie, I'm sorry; I…" Once again, his overwhelming grief choked off what he had been trying to say. A small part of his mind kept telling him this was a trick, but to hear that voice. He wanted to reach out, to find Charlie in the darkness and pull him close.

"Dad; don't leave me here," Charlie begged. "I know you didn't want me to play with guns, and I'm sorry. Please don't leave me here anymore."

"God, Charlie. This isn't me. I didn't send you here to punish you, I…"

"Where are you, Dad? I can't see you."

"I'm here, Kiddo," Jack said, stretching forth his hands. "I'm right here."

*

Teal'c felt a change in the darkness around him. Something about it, some quality, was different now. "Where am I?"

"In the Hall of Shades," Ner'auc told him.

"And where is O'Neill?"

"He is here," she said.

"Take me to him."

"I can not," she said, sadly. "Teal'c, in this place I can offer you no aid or guidance, give you neither solace nor protection. If you go on, you must go alone, and you must be strong."

"I must help my friend," Teal'c said, simply.

"Then good luck," she replied.

Teal'c stepped forward into the darkness, and at once he could _feel_ that Ner'auc was no longer with him. It felt lonely after travelling with her.

As he moved on, Teal'c began to hear the same whisperings that had first assailed Jack. After a short while, they began to resolve into the accusing voices of the many hundreds that Teal'c had killed in his time as First Prime of Apophis. Teal'c's face set into an unhappy frown, the expression he adopted when those same voices railed at him in the depths of kelno'reem, and he moved on in spite of them.

"Aray kree, shol'va!" A shiver ran down Teal'c's spine. "You shall not escape us this time, Teal'c."

"You are not Apophis," Teal'c said. "Apophis is dead."

"Yes, Teal'c," the System Lord admitted. "By your treason. But here, the dead still have teeth."

"Then bite me," Teal'c invited.

"…sorry. So sorry…"

"Jack O'Neill?" Teal'c turned in the darkness, seeking the source of his friend's half-heard voice.

"Teal'c!" It was not Jack O'Neill who called.

"Shan'auc," Teal'c responded, before remembering where he was. By that time it was too late; he had already let in too many memories.

"Teal'c, my love. Have you come to save me."

"I am sorry, Shan'auc," Teal'c whispered. "I am too late for that."

"No!" She insisted. "Tanith said that he would cast me to a place of darkness, and that all would forget me, even my Teal'c. But you have come for me."

"No," he said, without conviction.

"Yes. Hold me, Teal'c, then lead me from the darkness."

Almost against his will, Teal'c held out his arms. He felt the edges of Shan'auc's robes, the warmth from her body, and moved to pull her close.

"I'm sorry, Charlie. I'll never leave you again, I swear."

Teal'c's head snapped around.

"Teal'c, no!" Shan'auc cried, angrily. "You can not leave me. I need you!"

"You are not real!" Teal'c cried, anguished, tearing himself from the phantom's arms and plunging towards O'Neill's voice.

"I'm here now," Jack said. "I'll always…"

Teal'c ran into Jack, where he crouched on the ground. "O'Neill; we must leave this place!"

"No, Teal'c. I can't leave Charlie."

"Charlie is not here," Teal'c insisted, pulling Jack to his feet.

Jack shrugged off Teal'c's hands and threw a punch at him. Teal'c felt the blow coming, and blocked.

"This is not real, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said, slowly and calmly. "I hear the voices of those I have killed, or those I could not save, but it is not real. They are but hateful shadows, seeking our destruction."

"Please, Dad; don't go." Charlie's voice sounded fainter now; more distant.

"Charlie!" Jack called, his heart breaking as he realised Teal'c was right.

"We must go," Teal'c said.

"Which way?"

"Teal'c!" Ner'auc called. "This way."

Teal'c smiled to hear her voice. "This way O'Neill."

"Can we trust this one?" Jack asked, following the Jaffa as he moved off.

"She has been most…" Teal'c tailed off. "What do you see, O'Neill?"

"Nothing, Teal'c. It's dark. Can't you tell."

"I am blind."

"Oh."

If it was still dark, then they were still in the Hall of Shaded, and Ner'auc had been very clear that she could not help Teal'c in there. "This way," Teal'c said, catching Jack's arm and moving away from Ner'auc's voice, feeling ahead of him.

"No Teal'c!" She cried. "Not that way. You mustn't…!"

Teal'c's questing hand found a hanging curtain and he pulled it back.

"Aggh!" Jack cried out.

"What is it, O'Neill?"

"The light, Teal'c. It just…took me by surprise."

Teal'c smiled in certainty, and stepped forward.

_*_

Harruna had no idea how long he had been blacked out when he saw the spirit of light coming for him. It moved down the wall with an easy grace, pale against the darkness of the rocks, and came to stand over him.

"I'm not ready," he whispered.

"Atah?" The spirit said. It was not the voice he had imagined for a spirit of light. The tales said that a spirit spoke with a sound like the notes of a clear flute, and while there was a certain mellifluence to this voice, it was deep and earthy, and altogether human.

"Who are you?"

"Regai. Atah miu?" A face appeared in front of him, white like a cloud, with huge dark eyes. "Mehar?"

"I don't…I don't understand you." He tried to sit up, but again pain stabbed his side.

"Ay-kra!" Thick-fingered hands pressed him gently down.

"Ay-kra…" Harruna was struck by a revelation. They were speaking the same language – a debased form of the divine tongue – just not in the same way. "Aray kree?" He hazarded.

The hands, which had moved down to explore his side, stopped. "Nehu mehar?"

"Ah, no. Please; mehar."

The woman – he was almost certain it was a woman – put her hands back on his hip. Pain blossomed under her fingers, but she smeared something cool on his flank, and the pain lessened.

"Krey," she said. Holding out her hand. Harruna took it, and she drew him up. "Weya natrige," she told him, gesturing up the slope.

Harruna nodded. "Yes," he said, beginning to get a grip on her dialect. "We climb."

The Morlock pulled him in close against her side, supporting him as they began the scramble up the rock fall. He glanced at her, and seeing her in profile, recognised her face.

"I know you," he said, speaking slowly, to try and help her pick up on his dialect. "You were at the funeral."

She seemed to think for a moment before responding in a similar, slow cadence. "Ah. Meh taka."

"Your…brother. I'm so sorry."

After another pause, she shrugged. "Et maha."

 _It happens_ , Harruna translated. He studied her face, long and hard, discerning, even in the dark the stoic sorrow in her strange, pallid features.

They clambered through the breach, back into the main passage. "Harruna," he said, pointing to his chest.

"Yeka," she responded. Then she touched his cheek, gently. "Harruna."

Harruna blushed, and she smiled shyly at him.

*

"If we can just get this open," Sam said, pushing on the central cylinder. "This is the source of Ayesha's power. I can _feel_ her drawing it up."

"That's great," Daniel said, distractedly, studying a display device set into one of the control panels.

"The potential here must be incredible," Sam went on.

"Uh-huh."

"It must tax her to draw that kind of energy through herself, even with the naquadah in her bloodstream. I think it must leak as well; that's what's causing the reactions in us."

"Right. Reactions."

Sam snapped her fingers. "That's it! The energy field radiating from this place is super-charging the naquadah molecules in my blood. That's why Ayesha and Nefera feel different, and that's why she can't tell I'm not Goa'uld any more!"

"Of course."

If we can only open this, so I can get inside, I can intercept the Flame's power, and wrest control of it from Ayesha."

Daniel frowned. "I wouldn't do that," he warned.

"Why not?" Sam demanded, angrily.

"Well, if I'm reading this right – and granted, it's an old dialect – this is Asar's journal. According to what he's written, he came to Kôr because of a strange property of the caves. Apparently they possessed some kind of natural virtue which extended life and enhanced the minds of those who dwelt here. The indigenous people – the ancestors of the Morlocks – called them the Caves of Dreaming, and believed that when they slept within, they tasted all of the dreams of the world. The Amahagger who came, forced the Morlocks underground and built Kôr called them the Well of Souls, and believed that the air in the caves had healing properties, and that those buried within would never decay, and persist forever in spirit form."

Sam sighed, impatiently. "Is there a point to this, Daniel?"

"After a long time, the Amahagger Empire was overthrown by the invading Goa'uld, who elevated the lesser tribes and made them warriors to match those of the Imperial Legions. All save Kôr was lost, but the King of Kôr – a man named Nyam – held out. But then Asar came, seeking the secrets of the caves, and told the King that he could give him even greater power than he wielded, in exchange for a place to study the caves. He quickly discovered that the secret was not a mineral or micro-organism, as he had suspected, but an energy field. Thus, he created the Flame by channelling that field upwards to a single point. He prepared that chamber, which he promised the King would imbue anyone who stood within it with tremendous power, heal all their ills, etc, etc.

"The King's daughter was selected to be the first recipient of this power, because she was dying of a disease that the unfiltered power could not cure."

"And…?" Sam demanded, impatiently.

"And her body was incinerated, consumed from the inside out as the power entered it. The King was furious, and tried to strike Asar down, but he overpowered Nyam, dragged him into the chamber and passed from his old body into Nyam's. His old body was consumed, but the symbiote absorbed the Flame's energy, sparing that of Nyam.

"Sam, you may have the memories of a Goa'uld, but you don't have a symbiote. You'd be killed if you tried to absorb that kind of power…"

"No!"

"Sam…" Daniel pleaded.

"I will not be cheated," Sam insisted. "I can find a way; I can fix the machine."

"Sam!" She looked around, startled by Daniel's vehemence. "There's nothing to fix. The machine did what it was supposed to do; granted power to Asar. It was never meant to do anything to a human but consume them, like Nyam and his poor daughter."

Sam slumped, leaning against the cylinder, feeling the power that would ever be hers throb against her spine, taunting her. "There must be a way," she begged. "There must."

"Sam…"

"What happened to Asar?" Sam asked.

Daniel sighed. "He didn't need the sarcophagus to live anymore, and he wielded tremendous power, cementing his dominion over the Goa'uld and their subjects. When he grew weary of ruling, he retired to Kôr to husband his power, and ensure that no other could take it from him. However, he started to be troubled by a strange sickness of the spirit, which even the Flame could not diminish. He decided that he needed to rest, so he prepared this tank, funnelled a little of the Flame's energy into it and left his host to rot.

"Before he did this though, he prepared his trials in the caverns below, hiding the key to open his tank, and the key to open the Flame Chamber, protected by traps and warriors and…the ghosts of the past, whatever that means. The trials to claim the key to the  Flame were designed to net a Goa'uld Queen, who could then take charge of selecting for him a suitable host. Hmm."

Sam frowned. "Hmm?" She asked.

"Just wondering why a Goa'uld Queen would want to raise Asar, given all that power."

Sam scoffed, disdainfully. "Queens are dependent creatures; breeders. They seek power through their mates, and never stop to realise how much they themselves are controlled."

At that moment, a mocking, disembodied laugh rolled around the chamber, sibilant and echoing. "A Queen would say that her consort is the tool," a voice said, in the same distant, hissing tone. "And that by claiming the greatest of Goa'uld lords, she merely assures herself the best tool available."

*

Beyond the curtain was another stone stairwell.

"More stairs," Jack moaned. "Well, hopefully this is the last of them."

"Indeed, O'Neill," Teal'c agreed. "Major Carter recommended that I remain a short distance behind you so that Ayesha can not see me," he added.

"Will you be okay?" Jack asked, concerned.

"I will be well," Teal'c said, putting out his hand towards the wall. Before he reached it, an arm encircled his.

"Teal'c," Ner'auc said. "I am glad to see you well."

"It is good to hear your voice," Teal'c assured her. "To really hear it," he added. "Do you know what the voices which we heard within the Hall of Shades were?"

"Beats me," Jack told him.

"They were the spirits of the dead," Ner'auc said. "The power of these caverns causes such spirits to persist for many years."

Teal'c frowned. "But what of the voices of our murdered friends and defeated adversaries. Of O'Neill's son?"

"Besides those who have died here, the same power can give a form – of sorts – to the echoes of those loved or hated by any who enter," Ner'auc told him. "Or so I understand. I have never dared to enter the Hall of Shades myself."

"I see," Teal'c said.

"Teal'c?" Jack said.

"Yes O'Neill?"

"Who are you talking to?"

*

"He has done it!" Ayesha crowed. "He has the key and has past through the shadows! Asar will rise and together we shall rule this galaxy!"

"Oh, wacko," Nefera replied, watching the pool with a sullen anger.

Ayesha smiled her killer's smile. "We shall give Jack O'Neill the chance to kill you, before he is joined with Asar, and after," she said.

"Live or die," Nefera assured the Queen. "It will have been worth it for the look on your face when Neith told Jack he was right not to fight on."

"Pain!" Ayesha hissed.

Nefera fell to the floor, her body twisting unnaturally as it tried to tear itself apart. She screamed, the sound seeming to go on forever, reverberating with the second tone of the Goa'uld voice. Ayesha held her for more than a minute, before finally releasing her, and all that time she screamed.

The Ashrak lay panting on her side, her screams dying away. Then she began to laugh; little more than a pained chuckle, but a laugh nonetheless.

"You desire more pain?" Ayesha asked.

"I am Ashrak," Nefera gasped, in the sonorous voice of a Goa'uld, her eyes burning as she looked up at the Queen. "Forged in fire and blood. You can hurt me, and you can control my actions, but you will _never_ break me."

Ayesha bristled in fury. "Asar will break you!" She promised. "Follow!"

*

 "Asar," Sam whispered.

"That is correct, Samantha Carter. Had Jolinar ever had a Queen, then it might understand that no Goa'uld controls his Queen, however hard that may be to accept."

"How do you know who I am?" Sam demanded, angrily. "How do you know I was host to Jolinar?"

"I am Asar," the voice said, in the same soft tone. "I know all." The laugh came again. "That used to sound more impressive when I had a throat," it admitted.

"How…"

"The spirits that you carry told me," Asar explained. "Your mother, Martuf, Narim, Jolinar herself…"

"What do you mean, spirits?" Daniel asked.

"Everyone carries ghosts," Asar told him. "The residues of those departed. Call it life-after-death, call it memory, call it disembodied neuro-electric resonant persistence, these entities cling to you. In this place, the power of the Flame intensifies and amplifies their resonant energy. In general they are unseen and unheard, but take away a person's sight and they can hear them. I am blind, so I can always hear them, but I did not even know that they existed until I abandoned my last host."

"Because you had eyes," Daniel surmised.

"Because – as you say – I had eyes."

"Open the Chamber!" Sam demanded. "Or tell me how to do it."

"Only the key will open it," Asar told her. "And Ayesha has that. Even if she did not, you would not wish to complete the challenges to claim it. You would have to surrender all sense of decency and self-worth in the pursuit of power. Even as you are now, affected by the radiant energy of the Flame, you don't possess the necessary lust for control."

"That's a pretty unpleasant thing to test for," Daniel said.

"Well, yes," Asar admitted. "But I wouldn't want the power being claimed by a Queen who would be satisfied with what she had, instead of lusting for that little bit extra. She might leave me in here."

"What would I have had to do?" Sam asked.

"To pass my daughter and the other Guardians, you must perform an act of surrender, and relinquish all weapons. For a Goa'uld Queen, people are weapons. You would not have been allowed to pass without the blood of a lover on your lips."

Daniel looked up. "So Ashrahar and Kallikrates…"

"Were lovers. Sothis despised her husband and daughter for their affair, but was convinced that he planned to turn on Ashrahar in the end. Instead he abandoned her, and Ashrahar killed them both."

"I really hate you people," Daniel told Asar.

"So do I," Asar agreed.

"What?" Sam asked.

"The 'sickness of the spirit', which Daniel Jackson was reading about. When I came here, I neither knew nor cared why these caverns had the effect that they do, but I have learned since then. This is the centre of the world, a point at which all of the Earth's energy is focused. By resting here, all of the world's thoughts and dreams pour into you, granting power and knowledge…and empathy."

"You were starting to feel for your victims," Daniel realised. "Your 'sickness' was emotion; compassion."

"You really are very smart," Asar commended.

"What about the power?" Sam demanded. "How can I take it from Ayesha?"

Asar sighed. "For one person to control the power, it must come through the Flame, and you could not withstand that. The only way to stop Ashrahar is to sabotage the Chamber, allowing the power to flow back into the caves. It will also kill anyone in this chamber of course, flood the catacombs with fire and most likely lead to the collapse of the entire city, but it will prevent any Goa'uld wielding the power again."

"What about the mines?" Sam asked. "The naquadah mines? If these flames hit a naquadah seam…"

"There is no naquadah mine," Asar assured her. "All the naquadah on this planet comes through the Gate or from meteorites. A large, naquadah-bearing meteorite did fall here millennia before I came, and it may in fact have caused in some fashion the strange virtue of the caverns, but all the actual naquadah in the earth around here was mined out before my arrival. They used it for trinkets and pendants, if you'll credit; like the one around your neck."

"How can we trust you?" Sam asked. "Maybe you want us to blow a hole in northern Pakistan."

"You just need to have a little faith," Asar told her. "I wouldn't gain anything by starting a nuclear war."

"We still have a little trouble with the trust issue," Daniel said. "Since you're a Goa'uld, and our friends are in the catacombs."

"Your friends are on their way here now," Asar said. "As are Ashrahar and your Ashrak. And do you not trust Samantha's father?"

"He is Tok'ra," Daniel said.

"As is the spirit that moves Samantha," Asar pointed out. "But the Ashrak is not, and you trust her."

"What do you want in return?" Sam asked, still sceptical.

"Just death," Asar assured them.

"Alright," Daniel said, warily. "What would we do?"

"Step to the other panel, and I will tell you."

Sam stood back as Asar ran Daniel through the process for creating a catastrophic build-up of power in the Flame Chamber. She was having trouble thinking straight again; the power in the column was calling to her like a Siren.

"So that will destroy everything?" Daniel asked.

"Anything living," Asar said. "And probably some of the spirits."

"What about your daughter?"

"Neith has lived almost as long as I have," Asar said. "And she has as little desire to go on. We have both felt too many pains. She lies beneath the flame chamber, where the power gathers, and if anything sees more even than I."

"Okay then," Daniel said. "Here goes nothing. Sam…"

He half-turned, and Sam hit him in the head with the butt of the staff weapon.

*

If Nefera had found Ayesha's expression on learning how simple it was for a champion to pass the Hall of Surrender was to die for, it was as nothing to her look when she found the door to the Crypt of Asar open. She had led Nefera into the Shrine a triumphant Queen, but in moments her confidence had evaporated. It was quickly replaced by incandescent rage, but in the interim, she was simply bemused.

"Who dares!" She snarled, launching herself down the stairs.

Nefera followed, and the first thing that she saw was her pack, lying against the column. The second was Sam, beating at the cylinder with a bloodied staff weapon.

"You!" Ayesha hissed. She turned to Nefera. "And you! Deceiver."

Ayesha directed Sam to drop her weapon, but luckily seemed quite unable to decide which of the two women to wrack with agony first. Nefera's body trembled as she watched Sam struggle, yearning to obey her instincts.

"Carter!"

Sam half-turned at Jack's call, before being frozen again.

"Jack O'Neill," Ayesha greeted him. "Our champion."

"Murderer!"

Ayesha turned in alarm, as Nefera lunged past her, catching Jack off balance and slamming him into the wall. She raised her hand, hardening her fingers for a killing blow to Jack's throat, before Ayesha managed to reassert her control. The Ashrak was shaking like a leaf, her anger almost sufficient to overcome Ayesha's hold as her hand hovered for the strike. "I will kill you," she hissed, her eyes blazing.

"I knew it!" Jack declared. "I knew you'd turn on us eventually!"

"You…! You son of a bitch!" She snarled. "You killed him!"

" _Get back_!" Ayesha roared, and Nefera took two reluctant steps backwards.

Sam looked at the Queen, and saw the strain on her face. Slowly, she raised her hand. There was resistance, but not so that she could not fight it.

Ayesha cocked her head sideways. "I smell…Jaffa," she said. "Come out, Jaffa."

Slowly, dragging his feet, Teal'c emerged.

Ayesha gritted her teeth in concentration. "Jaffa. Bring our champion forward."

Under Ayesha's direction, Teal'c guided Jack to the tank, where his eyes widened in horror.

"You want to put _that_ in my head?" Jack asked, incredulous. "Where's it going to fit?"

Ignoring him, Ayesha snatched the key from around his neck. "That is truly none of your concern," she assured him, fitting the key into its slot. With a sharp hiss, a panel slid open in the tank, and the fluid spilled out, leaving the massive Goa'uld writhing in less than an inch of liquid.

"Lord Asar," Ayesha said. "Take thou this offering from thine humble servant, and through him, live again."

The Goa'uld did not move, to Ayesha's obvious distress.

Nefera flexed her fingers, feeling the Queen's grip slacken again. She eyed Jack, tensing to spring as soon as he was able, until her eye was drawn by a movement behind the trio at the tank. From behind a second control panel, an arm rose, and Daniel slowly, carefully dragged himself up. Nefera's eyes widened, and it was all that she could do not to cry out.

"Lord Asar…" Ayesha began again.

"I am so tired," Asar said, startling those who had not heard the voice before. "I have lived longer than a child like you can dream, Ashrahar. I just want it to end now. Besides, I buried my own beloved Queen millennia past, your own luckless mother's namesake, and I have no wish to replace such a sublimely devious creature with a petty, scheming witch like yourself."

"No!" Ayesha roared. "You will be my consort, I demand it. I passed the trials, I have earned this."

"Are you complaining that I've cheated you?" Asar asked. "We're Goa'uld you silly little strumpet; it's _what we do_. I just happen to be better at it than you."

"Damn you!" Ayesha flung out her hand, and let rip with her ribbon device. The Goa'uld spasmed, but did not grow still.

"I _am_ dying," he said. "But it will take more than that to finish me, and you don't have the strength. Not while trying to control three other wills. Speaking of which, it probably was unwise to tax your concentration with that attack."

"No! I…"

Sam leaped on Ayesha's back, slamming her against the tank. The Queen shrieked in rage, flailing at Sam with her arms.

"Stop, I command," she gasped, but without effect. She reached back, and blasted Sam in the face with her hand device. It was a weak blow, but enough to dislodge her assailant. Jack made a grab for Ayesha as she readied herself for another attack, but she slipped his grasp and drove her fist into his face. Whatever might be happening to her mesmeric power, her strength did not seem to have faded. Teal'c tried to step in, but still blinded his rush was easily avoided and Ayesha sent him slamming into the wall beside the second control panel.

That was when Ayesha saw Daniel.

"No!" She cried. "Nefera, stop him."

Now the focus of all Ayesha's concentration, Nefera felt her will wrested from her again, and she charged Daniel, grabbing him from behind, barely resisting the urge to snap his neck there and then.

Jack staggered up, and looked dazedly at the chaos around him.

"Kill me," Asar's voice whispered.

"I'm sorry," Nefera sobbed, holding Daniel pinned. "I can't…fight it."

"Teal'c!" Daniel called, as loud as he could with Nefera's arm locked around his throat. "You have to complete the sequence. Release the valves and override the system; red-red-blue-green-white."

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c protested, pushing himself up from the wall. "I cannot…"

"I will guide you," Ner'auc told him. He felt her body in front of him, standing between him and the console, as she took his hands and guided the to the panel. He allowed himself to be directed, twisting the valve releases, and touching each of the five buttons in turn. As he pressed the last one, a soft wining sound began to build behind him.

Not needing a second request, Jack reached into the tank, and pulled out the writhing monster.

"No!" Ayesha cried, and at that moment Sam attacked her again, wrestling her to the ground with psychotic strength, so that the Queen could only watch as Jack twisted the head from the oldest living Goa'uld, and dropped the corpse to the ground.

At once, Sam released Ayesha, and the two of them began trying to scramble over each other to reach the serpentine body. Sam got their first, and snatched it up, trying to suck the blood from its neck.

Nefera's hold on Daniel loosened as she was freed from Ayesha's influence again.

"You have to get out," Daniel told her, his voice slurred. "Can't walk, you go on…" Nefera looked with concern at the gash on the side of his head.

"I shall assist you, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said.

"No!" Nefera snapped. "I'll get him. You follow me." She bent down, and lifted Daniel gently into her arms. "Colonel O'Neill! We have to leave," she shouted over the gathering scream of the Flame of Eternity. "Teal'c. On your right, my pack." The Jaffa leaned down and picked it up. "Now take my arm."

"I am alright," Teal'c assured her. "Ner'auc will guide me."

"Who?" Nefera asked, but he was already moving towards the stairs to the Shrine.

Jack turned to where Sam and Ayesha were lapping at Asar's blood, and felt a wave of nausea. "Come on Carter!" He shouted, tugging at her shoulder.

She shrugged him off. "Leave me," she insisted, and turned back to her feast.

"Carter! That's an order!" He turned to the Flame Chamber, the walls of which were beginning to glow.

"Sam!" He cried. "Please!"

Sam sat back, her head clearing. _Where am I_? She wondered. _What am I doing_?

"Sam!"

She looked around, and saw Jack, beckoning. "Colonel?"

"Come on, Carter. Move it!"

Sam struggled to her feet, unused to the robe still, and began to follow. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of something from the corner of her eye and ran back.

"Carter!" Jack called, but Sam was already up again, running for the stairs as Ayesha stared after them with a feral expression, bluish gore staining a face that no longer seemed so lovely.

 

Nefera laid Daniel gently on the floor of the shrine, and took her pack from Teal'c.

"You okay, Teal'c?" Daniel asked.

"I am blind," Teal'c replied. "But otherwise well. How have you fared?"

"I got a nasty crack to the head," Daniel admitted. "Otherwise good."

Nefera clasped a bejewelled gold bracer around her right wrist, and took a small device – like a flattened egg, set with a naquadah nodule – from her pack. At she manipulated the device, a pair of vicious-looking blades sprang from one end.

"What the hell is that?" Daniel asked.

Nefera smiled at him, then threw the object hard at the archway. The blades cut into the stone and lodged there. "It's a remote charge," she said, hovering her finger over the largest stone in her bracer. "It should be enough to seal the staircase."

"Good thinking," Daniel said. "But…"

"Wait for the others," she said. "I know. I'm learning."

"You're talking like a Goa'uld again," he noted, sadly.

Nefera shook her head, and when she spoke again it was with a normal, human voice. "I thought that's what you wanted," she said.

"I suppose I've gotten used to you," Daniel replied.

Jack and Sam sprinted up the stairs and out into the Shrine. Nefera pressed the switch on her bracer, and a focused blast shattered the keystone, bringing a tonne of stone down over the stairway.

*

Ayesha stood, unsteadily, feeling her power wane. For the first time in millennia, the fire died in her eyes. Asar's blood was still hot in her mouth, and in its rich tang, she tasted what he had enabled Daniel Jackson to do.

"No!" She cried. She moved, unsteadily, to the Flame Chamber. If she could release the pressure, absorb some of the power that was building up, then she would still be Queen, and she could go out into the world and seize the power that should have been hers all this time.

She slapped the lotus key into its slot and the Chamber slid open. The golden flames blasted out, filling the Crypt, and charred Ayesha – host and symbiote alike – to ashes.

*

Fire rushed down the stairway, bringing light to the Hall of Shades for the first and last time.

Neith smiled as she heard the approaching holocaust. "I want you all to know that I'm proud of you," she told her warriors. "You've done well, and I know you will be rewarded in the next world."

"Thank you, Mistress," the youngest warrior said.

Neith turned to the door, as the flames burst in.

*

Yeka stopped, sniffing the air, and turned to look back down the passageway. "Atera!" She cried, and began jogging down the passage as fast as she could, leading Harruna by the hand. "Atera, no toi!"

As they ran, his wounded side in agony, Harruna became aware of what Yeka had sensed; the growing dryness in the air, and the rumbling behind them. As they fled through the gallery of the dead, Harruna thought that he saw pale figures standing by each alcove, arms outstretched to meet the coming destruction, faces set in beatific anticipation, but he had no time to stop and make sure.

Yeka stumbled, and motioned for him to go on, but he stopped and helped her up, and as he did so he saw the fireball racing along the gallery behind them. He tugged on Yeka's arms, and pressed her through the crack ahead of him. He risked one last look at the fire that was almost upon him, seeing those ghostly forms consumed, before pressing himself into the crack, and feeling Yeka's thick, strong hands pull him through and down.

The heat was almost overwhelming, and as the flames receded, Harruna found himself gasping for breath, before a cool, blessed breeze rushed into the mine from above. He panted heavily, gulping down the air, then looked across at the Morlock woman lying next to him.

He reached across and touched her face, and it was her turn to blush, her pale skin turning a bright pink. Strange goddesses from across the mountains notwithstanding, Harruna felt that he had never seen anything so beautiful.

_*_

SG-1 limped out of the Shrine, and found themselves surrounded by Ayesha's guards.

"Oh, great," Jack muttered.

"Where are the guns?" Nefera asked.

Jack looked again, and realised that she was right. None of the guards were armed; in fact, they had their hands secured behind their back. "Did we miss something?" He asked.

*

Harruna and Yeka came to the upper mines, and Yeka stopped just short of the entrance, wary of the sunlight.

"Ka min," Yeka said, tugging on Harruna's hand.

"I have to go," he said. "But…I'll come back. To you, I mean. I promise." He kissed her tenderly on the lips, and she smiled.

*

"Master Teal'c?"

"Who is that?" Teal'c asked.

"My name is Nema," the young woman said. "This is Terrua. Hasdrucar asked us to look out for you. He is concerned for his son."

 They had made their way through the palace to the front gates, where they found the bulk of the Amahagger preparing to make their way home. All in all, it seemed, the guards had fallen quite easily once the people decided to rise against them, and many of the Amahagger leaders seemed to be wondering what all the fuss was about. Nema and Terrua met them as they came down the bridge to ground level.

"Hasdrucar?" Jack asked.

Sam nodded. "That's right," she added, realising that Teal'c would not see her. "Harruna was with you. Is he…" She tailed off at the look on his face.

"He is…"

"Master Teal'c!" Footsteps scrambled across the rocks, and Harruna slung himself at Teal'c. "Master Teal'c, I'm so glad you're not dead."

"I am relieved to see you safe and well also," Teal'c admitted. "I did not relish telling your parents that I had misplaced you."

"Oh," Nema said, sadly. "Of course…you don't know…I'm sorry, Harruna; your mother was killed. By Ayesha."

"No," Harruna whispered, his voice numb.

"Nayasa?" Sam asked for conformation. "She's dead?"

"I am sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings," Nema said.

"My father," Harruna said. "I have to go to him. Where is he."

Nema put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'll take you to him," she promised.

"Do you know what became of Ayesha?" Terrua asked.

"She is dead," Sam assured him.

"You are certain?"

Behind them, they heard a rumble, and a cloud of dust rose from the cone of the mountain. "Pretty certain," Daniel said.

"I believe that my eyesight is returning," Teal'c said, looking at the sky.

Ner'auc sighed, softly. "Then I must bid you farewell, Teal'c."

Teal'c frowned. "Why must it be so?" He asked. "Where are you going?"

"Wherever you go," she assured him, laying her hands lightly on his arms. "I have nothing else to return to now, but I am afraid that I will be forever beyond your sight. Away from Kôr, not even the darkness can give me form."

"How can that be?" Teal'c asked, gently taking hold of her arms.

"Oh Teal'c," she sighed. "I am but a spirit, a ghost."

"I see," Teal'c said, softly. "Then…will you tell me before I go, what is your right name, that I may keep you alive in my thoughts."

Teal'c swore he could see her smile. "Once," she said. "I was the princess of Kôr, before sickness claimed me and my flesh was consumed by that terrible Chamber. At that time, I was Mené-pana: 'She-who-shows-the-way'."

"It is a good name," Teal'c told her, seeing a vague shape before his eyes. "I can almost see…"

"Goodbye, Teal'c," Mené-pana said, her voice sounding distant. She kissed him, tenderly, and stepped back, and for the briefest moment Teal'c saw a dark-skinned woman of incredible beauty standing before him.

Then she was gone, and he blinked as the light stung his eyes.

"Teal'c," Jack said. "Who were you talking to?"

 

*

 

That night, the Amahagger celebrated. Daniel – who had been worrying about the Morlocks ever since unleashing a tide of flame through their home – was relieved to see the strange, pale figures materialise from the rocks around them, although it seemed to give everyone else a turn for the worse. The Amahagger had been jumpy, and so had the Morlocks, each side looking nervous, and ready to leap into bloody action at the slightest provocation.

Then Harruna had risen, and greeted one of the Morlock women with a show of affection which Sam for one was relieved to see, and the ice was broken. Not that the Morlocks exactly joined the Amahagger – they seemed reticent to get that close to the fire – but they were there, and no-one was killed, which as Daniel said was better than many parties they had been to.

With the aid of Daniel, Harruna and Yeka, the elders of the Morlocks – or the Grana, as they called themselves – and the Amahagger even worked out the beginnings of a peace treaty and united constitution. The Grana had insisted that Teal'c sit in on the meetings, his musical turn having made quite an impression on them. Afterwards, they had taken him off to their shadowed corner of the party to learn each other's songs.

"You realise that they are probably the only genuine Neanderthals on this planet," Daniel said, once he was sitting back with his team-mates. "It would be an anthropologist's dream to come and study them."

"Not thinking of quitting the squad are you?" Jack asked.

"No. I was just thinking it's a shame we can't tell anyone this was here."

"We can't?" Sam asked.

"Well, think about it?" Daniel said. "There's nothing much left of value here, so if we bring anyone back they're probably just going to want to bulldoze the mountain or something to get to the caves underneath. Besides, we're in Afghanistan; technically. If we bring these people to light, do you think the Taleban would embrace their traditional pagan ways in the name of multicultural harmony?"

"I see your point," Jack agreed.

"So we just have to…forget there was anything here," Daniel said.

"While we're on the subject of, ah…forgetting things," Sam said.

"I am trying," Daniel assured her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam demanded.

Daniel sighed, but with a warm smile. The words might have been chillingly reminiscent of the predatory Jolinar persona, but the good-humour was one hundred percent Sam Carter. "Whatever makes you happiest," he replied.

"About that," Jack said. "If I could have a moment, Carter?"

"Sure thing, Colonel," she said, nervously.

They moved a little way from the fire, leaving Daniel relaxing and Teal'c sitting upright, thinking his private thoughts.

"Look, Sir…I know I was way, _way_ out of line, but there were extenuating circumstances."

"I know that," Jack assured her. "I just…don't want you to have the wrong idea about me, and I can see how you might have got the wrong end of the stick."

"Stick, Sir?"

"It wasn't me," he told her.

"What?"

"Gooney Bird," Jack explained. "It wasn't me. Sure, me and Miranda have history, but that goes right back to Chicago. I left her when I fell in love with Sara. Well…left is a bit gentle maybe; I dumped her pretty hard. She bore a grudge for a long time. Some of it was valid, and some of it wasn't; I mean, she was mostly angry because she felt I'd broken up with her because she wasn't white, and that just wasn't true. After she quit the Air Force, I didn't see much of her because she didn't care for Sara, and the feeling was more than mutual.

"But I wasn't the officer she had an affair with."

"God, Sir…I'm sorry, I…"

"I knew the guy who was," Jack told her. "And what you said about me…You were dead right about him. He manipulated her loyalty and her love for him to get her to take the fall. I guess I made it sound a lot like I was the one," he admitted. "So from that perspective, I deserved every word."

"You didn't, Sir," Sam told him. "I know you, and I should have known that whatever the story, it wasn't like that. And I won't say another word about this. I promise."

"Thanks," Jack said, wearily.

 

*

 

At the end of the next day, Daniel lay in his sleeping alcove in the Hawk village, ruminating over the archaeology that now lay buried under the mountain. Who were the first Amahagger? Who were the first Grana? And how much did either race really understand about the caves?

A cool breeze blew along Daniel's spine as the blankets lifted, and a warm body settled alongside him.

"I wondered where you'd got to?" He admitted. He was fairly sure that he had not seen her in twenty-four hours or more.

"I've been…thinking," Nefera told him. "The last few days my head was so screwed up I didn't know what I was doing half the time." She slid an arm around him, and pulled herself tight against his back. Daniel did not think that she was wearing very much.

"Nefera…"

"You remember I told you I didn't understand why you wouldn't want to sleep with Phia?"

"Yes," Daniel said. "You told me that sex didn't mean anything to you."

"I said that I had never known it to mean anything," she corrected him. "But…I'd like to." She planted a soft kiss on the side of his neck, and he shivered with desire.

"Stop, Nefera," he said, gently.

"Why?" She asked, pulling away slightly, genuinely confused.

"Because this won't work. It doesn't mean anything if you just want to have sex that means something. It's not that simple."

"But I…" She trailed off, and sighed. "You're right," she said. "I just…I should go."

"It's probably best," he said, although not without regret. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah," she agreed. She slipped out of bed, then bent down to kiss his cheek. "Good night," she whispered.

Daniel lay there, the kiss burning on his skin.

 

*

 

Nefera stopped on the edge of the Hawk village and looked back. She had a lump in her throat and a tear in her eye. _Stupid, human sentiment_ , she told herself; not that it helped.

"Penny for your thoughts."

"Dyow!" Nefera cried, spinning around, her pistol half-drawn and her heart half-way to her mouth. "It's been a long time since anyone did that to me," she admitted. "Maybe I should stop trying to do it to other people."

Sam smiled. "The rest of us aren't leaving until tomorrow," she said.

Nefera sighed. "I know, I just…want to slip away."

"I can't believe that I'm saying this to a Goa'uld, but do you want to talk about it?"

Nefera shook her head. "What's to talk about?"

"Have you told him how you feel?" Sam asked.

"I slipped naked into his bed and he told me to take a hike," Nefera snapped, bitterly. "Does that count?"

"Nefera…" Sam began.

"No," Nefera interrupted. "Don't. How can I tell him how I feel if I don't know myself? It's easier for all concerned if I just go."

"Besides which, it gives you time to get back into hiding before we sic the Feds on Jane Archer."

"I like Jane," Nefera said, only too happy to change the subject. "I think I'll keep her." She handed Sam a card. "I was going to leave this with Harruna."

Sam examined the card. "'Archer Retrievals: Discretion, diligence, integrity. Parole violations a speciality'. So this is what you do with your life?"

Nefera smiled. "That and write novels," she said. "There's a number on the back that will always be good. Even if I switch identities, you can contact me if you need me."

"Why?" Sam asked, turning the card over to find the answer written on the back in a broad, neat hand, underneath the number. "'I am thine Ashrak'," she read.

"And I always shall be."

Sam held out her hand. "I saw that Ayesha had dropped this," Sam said. "I think it's yours." She placed the small object in Nefera's hand.

"My hara-kash!" Nefera realised, delighted. "Thank you!"

Sam smiled; she had suspected that the Ashrak's signature weapon might be important to Nefera. "Be safe," Sam said, with an affection she had not expected.

"Always," Nefera promised, and she turned to go. At the last moment she turned back. "Sam," she said. "I always like Jolinar; loved her even. But you're better than her, and stronger. Be safe, Mistress."

 


End file.
